The Wheel
by L. Emmist
Summary: The Animorphs face what may prove to be their biggest challenge yet -- Driver's Ed. -- PG for action. --
1. Chapter 1

- The Wheel -  
  
  
  
Disclaimer: Let's see . . . what don't I own here? Oh, everything! The Animorphs are not mine, in character or concept. I don't own Buffy. Actually, if there's any name you recognize here, I don't own it. I do own KrayZ and the Loons. If anybody wants them, they're on sale. $5.99, plus tax.  
  
Author's Explanation: I have revised all chapters in the story. Due to a plot hitch, I had to convert it from summer to the school year. All changes are minor, and you probably don't need to re-read anything. Thanks!  
  
Author's Note: There is a permanent "To Be Continued" note attached to this story until you see the words, "The End." After that, zilch. Read. Think. Review. Enjoy!  
  
  
  
---  
  
  
  
Chapter One:  
  
  
  
My name is Marco Doe. Marco Smith. Marco Jones. Marco Brown. Marco Spears, for all you know. Actually, I can't give out my last name. See, the Yeerks are everywhere. Yeah, that sounds paranoid. When you've done about a millionth of the insane things that I've done, you get paranoid. It's a survival strategy. Like the Crocodile Hunter has to be careful, I have to be paranoid. Only he's got a big advantage over me. The crocodiles aren't actively interested in taking over his mind.  
  
The Yeerks are aliens. Parasitic slugs. Like the body snatchers, only way, way worse. They control your every breath, every blink, even your thoughts. They watch your sad memories like a rowdy teen watching Titanic, laugh at your heartbreak, and mock your successes. Then they try and get their buddies in the brains of your family members.  
  
Not my idea of a good time. My idea of a good time was doing normal stuff. Not fighting the Yeerks. Not turning into animals and bleeding. Not listening to screams. My idea of a good time was playing video games with Jake on a Saturday afternoon, listening to my neighbor mow the lawn. Which is exactly where I was.  
  
We were playing Mario Tennis. Not the most thrilling of games, but we got enough adrenaline on most weeknights to keep us going for the rest of our lives. A low-key game, batting a fuzzy green ball between a lizard and a ghost seemed like a pretty good idea.  
  
Of course, since it was Jake and I playing, it wasn't that low-key.  
  
"Take that, fearless leader!" I exulted. "You and your little undead friend can just go and cry, 'cause me and Bowser are taking it home!"  
  
"Over my dead . . . um . . . live body," he grated, returning a low serve. He had this hilarious, intense look on his face. He always gets it when playing video games. Not that we have a chance to play much. We're way too busy saving the world.  
  
The night before had been rough. We had been on a mission, "retrieving" a piece of Andalite technology from a Yeerk security center. That meant stealing it. The thing had floated up from a crashed Andalite dome ship which, for various reasons, is somewhere at the bottom of our ocean. It was a piece of navigational circuitry. According to Erek, our spy friend, it was beyond anything the Yeerks had at that point and would delight their scientists to no end.  
  
We're not exactly in the business of delighting Yeerks.  
  
For some reason, Jake decided to listen to Rachel instead of me. Rachel suggested we go in all guns blazing, take the thing, and beat it. Full power morphs; run straight through barbed wire and gunfire. I suggested we stay home, watch the game, and order pizza. Everybody ignored me, as usual. They think I'm kidding when I suggest these plans.  
  
Well, I am. But that doesn't make them bad ideas.  
  
This story isn't about that mission. It had been rough, though. Cassie had almost died from loss of blood. Jake had almost been trapped as a pelican. That was our brilliant plan. Make a hole, have Pelican-Man put the circuitry in his beak, and fly away. Things got complicated. But we made it.  
  
That was why Jake and I were playing Nintendo. Because it was normal. Because it didn't involve angry guards or real explosions. Those things just fail to thrill, nowadays. You've seen one, you've seen one too many.  
  
I was wiping the floor with Jake. I was always better than him at video games. We were trash-talking each other, eating pizza on the floor, typical guy stuff. It felt good. Normal. Like we weren't involved in a real live war with real live aliens. Eventually, though, the game got old, and we switched it off and hung out in my room, with a little mood music playing in the background.  
  
"Would you turn that screaming down?" shouted Jake. I could barely hear him.  
  
"Would I scream like a clown?" I asked, for clarification.  
  
"Turn it down!" he bellowed.  
  
I grinned. I had heard him the first time. KrayZ and the Loons faded as he twisted the volume control. "Oh, you meant turn it down," I said, as though it were just dawning on me. "I was wondering why you wanted to be crowned."  
  
He threw a book at me. I caught it, and dropped it on the floor. "So. What's new on the homestead?"  
  
"How do you mean?" he asked.  
  
"I mean, in real life! With the mom and the dad and . . . everything." I stopped short of mentioning Jake's brother, Tom. Tom's one of Them. Yeah, that's right. Capital T.  
  
"Nothing much. Tom's been going to the Sharing a lot, parents work, you know."  
  
"They do that, don't they?"  
  
"Yep. Plus, my mom's been bugging me about Driver's Ed."  
  
"You're kidding," I balked. With one alien invasion and another, Driver's Ed had been driven completely out of my thoughts. "What for?"  
  
"So I can drive. You know. Honking horn, turning wheels, stuff like that?"  
  
I groaned. "Marco has to commit ritual suicide now. I actually forgot about getting my license! Me! Who's been idolizing over cars since I was knee high to a Helmacron!"  
  
Jake snickered at that. I guess you have to know Helmacrons, but that's pretty small. "Right, well. Rachel's mom, being all organized, thought of it first. Then she talked to my mom, and now she wants me to sign up online tonight."  
  
"So what's the problem?"  
  
"The problem is that my mom and Rachel's mom want us to be in the same class, and Rachel is signed up for a 8:00 PM to 10:00 PM class."  
  
"Yeah . . . "  
  
"This is Driver's Ed, Marco. They don't let you miss a session, especially not at this driving school. You miss even one, you're toast. That means that every weekday night, for the next two weeks, we have to be in a classroom. That means no more evening missions. That means anything we do has to be done in broad daylight, or not at all."  
  
I frowned. That was bad. When I cause pain and destruction to Yeerks, I prefer the cover of darkness. What do you expect from a former member of the Batman fan club? "Hey, but can't we still work from midnight to dawn?"  
  
"Since that prowler's been around, my parents installed this security system. Once they switch it on at 10:30, I'm a prisoner in my own home."  
  
I snorted. "It's not like we haven't gotten past security systems before, Jake-O."  
  
"Most of those we've just overpowered with force. I don't want Tom to suspect anything's weird. But I will have Ax take a look at it sometime."  
  
I was thinking hard. "Seems like if I ever want to take Driver's Ed, now might be the time. If we're out of commission for night-work anyway . . . "  
  
Jake frowned. I could see the fearless leader look entering his eyes. "I don't know. It might be better to have you and Cassie available to go on anything super-important that comes up while Rachel and I are gone."  
  
Just then, the door opened, and my dad poked his head in. "Hey, Marco, Jake! Jake, I saw your mom at the store. She told me you're taking DE. I'm online now, Marco, want me to sign you up with Jake's class?"  
  
It would look too weird for me to say no. "Sure, Dad, thanks," I said. The door closed. Jake sighed.  
  
"I guess we'd just better hope nothing super-important comes up."  
  
"Why did I feel an icy chill up my spine when you said that?" I joked. 


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter Two:  
  
  
  
You know, it's freaky how parents communicate. In no time at all, Cassie had been signed up, too. So, Monday night, there we were. Not counting Tobias the Bird-boy, the four human Animorphs were signed, sealed, and delivered to the doorstep of "The Wheel" driving school. It was in one of those office-building complexes, with blocky brown buildings and sickly shrubs. "The Wheel" itself was sandwiched between a ballet studio and a shoebox of an advertising firm. I grimaced, looking up at it. This was going to be home every weekday night for the next two weeks. I would be forced into intimate acquaintance with the pastel pink "Encore Studieau," and glaring green "Sold2U" signs. On the plus side, there might be models working with the advertising people, and there were bound to be some cute girls at the ballet studio.  
  
These things balance out, I guess.  
  
I took the bus that first evening. Most nights, I planned to fly over, but I didn't really know where the building was or what it looked like yet, and things can be hard to find from the air. Especially if you've never seen them before. Consequently, I arrived about half an hour too early. The parking lot was mostly abandoned, except for two men conferring in the parking lot. As I drew nearer, their tone changed, and they began talking about golf.  
  
The disturbing thing was, I found that highly suspicious. They could have been talking about anything, but I had this creeping, nagging feeling that these could be controllers, plotting some new Yeerk atrocity.  
  
See? I told you I was paranoid.  
  
Eventually, the two men left, and I was alone. I had been there long enough to begin toying with the idea of morphing seagull to get a look in the ballet studio window when Cassie was dropped off. Officially, she and I didn't know each other that well, only as friends of friends. Unofficially, we've saved each other's lives so many times that I was beginning to wonder if we aren't being set up by the author of some series to fall in love. But that would mean I'd have to fall in love with Ax, Tobias, Jake, and Rachel, too. And while I'm okay with Rachel, I'm just not interested in the rest of them. Sorry, guys.  
  
I nodded, offered a casual, "Hey." She returned it. Her mom drove away, and we dropped the act. "I really don't think this class is necessary," I complained, a twinkle in my eye. "I'm already a great driver, as long as I'm in gorilla mode!"  
  
"Uh-uh, no way," she said, shaking her head. "You need this the most of all, Marco."  
  
"But I have the most experience driving!" I was whining. We both knew it was a joke.  
  
"All experience, no training. Not a good combination." She made a face, teasing me. Then she became a little more serious. "Are we the first ones here?"  
  
"Yup. You and me alone. If you ever wanted to ditch Jake and fly off with me, now's our chance." She blushed, and looked down. She and Jake have a thing, but they pretend that they don't. It's kind of cute, really. But there was sort of an awkward pause. I guess maybe I shouldn't have teased her about it after what had happened in the last battle. "Anyway," I said, just to change the subject.  
  
"Anyway!" Rachel shouted, from the sidewalk. She had walked up while I was distracted, or else I would have had a witty comment prepared for her arrival.  
  
"Anyway," grinned Cassie, just for the fun of it. "Did your mom drop you off, Rachel?"  
  
"Nope," she smirked. "I flew in."  
  
"And boy are my arms tired," I said, quoting the old comedy gag.  
  
"Except mine really are," she said, rotating her shoulders. "The air was totally dead on the way over. Very bad night for flying."  
  
"Hang on," I objected. "If you flew in, how come you have more than your morphing outfit on? Unless you've been holding back on us about how to morph Abercrombie and Fitch."  
  
Cassie jumped in gleefully before Rachel could reply. "Didn't you know, Marco? She has stashes of tasteful little outfits hidden all over town. Wherever she goes, she's just three minutes away from perfection."  
  
"Not!" Rachel snorted, glaring at Cassie. Then she grinned. "It's at least five minutes over by the theater."  
  
We all laughed. Hey, I'll admit it; it felt good to be doing something so normal. Something that didn't have anything to do with slugs or centaurs. Honestly, that's all I've wanted to do since this whole nightmare began. Then some of the other kids started arriving, so we had to split up a little. We always separate in a crowd, or try to. The last thing we want to be is identified as a clique. I ended up in this group of three other kids from our school. And no matter what Rachel claims, it was totally by accident that two of them were on the cheerleading squad.  
  
Jake was actually the very last student to arrive. The whole class arrived early, due to bus schedules, nervous moms, nervous kids, or whatever. Tom dropped Jake off about a minute before class was supposed to begin. As soon as he was out of the car, I noticed his tense expression. I mean, Jake has a tense expression a lot of the time. It comes from making life- or-death decisions that could get your friends killed or the Earth taken over. That or stomach acid.  
  
We began filing into the building. I hung back to talk to Jake. That worried look on his face was contagious. "Hey, Jake! How's it going?"  
  
"Hey, Marco. Pretty good." We fought our way up the stairs with the rest of them. "But according to our friend with the dogs, there's been a little complication in our after-school project." He said it nonchalantly, as if it were no big deal.  
  
The after-school project was the war. Our friend with the dogs was Erek.  
  
Complications are always, always, always bad. Complications involving Erek are way, way, way worse. Little complications are always, always, always huge. The combination of the three usually ends in a whole lot of bloodshed and pain. Our pain.  
  
It was a big deal.  
  
"Really?" I asked carelessly. Inside, I felt like throwing up.  
  
"Yep," he said.  
  
And then class started. 


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter Three:  
  
  
  
Our teacher was a guy from someplace in Africa, named Mr. Mkonge. He was pretty cool, actually, although it was hard to get through his accent sometimes. The steering wheel was "tih styah-eeng hweel," and so forth. He had come to America ten years ago, had three daughters, and taught biology at a private school. Overall, he was a neat guy.  
  
The class consisted of about thirty people. Half were strangers; the other half went to our school. As usual in any classroom, I picked a spot along the wall. It's easier to crack jokes from back there. Jake sat next to me, while Cassie and Rachel were across the room.  
  
Mr. Mkonge explained that we would have forty-five minutes of class, then a five-minute break, then another forty-five minutes of lecture, and end with a five-minute test on what we had just learned. As he began to drone about adjusting mirrors and which pedals did what, I tuned out. Two solid hours of this for two solid weeks? One of the other kids had been complaining before class that his cousin's DE had only taken five days spread out in five weeks. Well, some people have all the luck, I guess.  
  
Most of the material was boring. I didn't take notes, of course. If I needed them, I'd get them from Cassie later. Mostly, I was just listening and trying hard not to think about the "little complication," whatever it was. I was failing miserably. It was pretty much all I could think about. I noticed that Jake and Rachel were communicating in eyebrow language. I spoke that language too. The general message was that I wasn't going to get to hang out with the cheerleaders during the break.  
  
"And now we are on break," announced Mr. Mkonge, in the same tone with which he had just been referring to gearshifts. I saw a twinkle in his eye. I think he was checking to see which students were really listening, and which were asleep. Cassie stood up first, since she had been tracking right along with him. Soon the whole tiny room was jam-packed with students trying to maneuver around each other, out the door or up to the front desk.  
  
I toddled forward with the rest of the crowd, and Jake, Cassie, Rachel and I stepped out into the parking lot, and around the corner of the building.  
  
"Well?" Rachel asked.  
  
Jake shook his head. "Erek."  
  
"Oh, boy," groaned Cassie.  
  
He nodded. "The good news is that the Yeerks didn't have time to do anything with that Andalite technology. Visser Three was pretty mad when he found out about it."  
  
Cassie winced. I knew she was imagining what the aftermath of his frustration undoubtedly looked like.  
  
"The bad news," Jake continued, "is unrelated, so far as the Chee can tell. But it's not cool. The Yeerks are stepping up the infestation process, convincing, tricking, or forcing more people to become controllers more frequently."  
  
"Great. I love Yeerk timing. Just when we're out of commission, they start a membership drive."  
  
"Is this just more infestation in general, or do they have a particular method they're using?"  
  
"What Rachel means is, is there any one thing we can physically blow up? Pretty please?" I ducked the lopsided punch she aimed at me.  
  
Jake glanced at his watch. Already, break was practically over. "That's the tricky part. The Chee know that infestation has increased, but they aren't sure yet where the focal point is. All of a sudden, there are just more people at the Yeerk pool."  
  
"Well, it is almost summer," I smirked. "Maybe people misunderstood those brochures for a lakeside vacation every three days that the Sharing has been handing out."  
  
"What brochures?" barked Jake, before he realized I was joking.  
  
"This is bad," smiled Cassie. "If Jake starts taking Marco literally, we're in trouble."  
  
"Blame it on too much time around Ax," sighed Jake, and he turned to head back into the building.  
  
"So, what are we going to do about this?" demanded Rachel before we opened the door.  
  
"Identify a few of the controllers, and have Tobias watch them, to start," said Jake. "If we can find a common activity among these new recruits, we'll work from there."  
  
"That's my boy," I beamed. "Comes up with a plan for saving the world while learning what the two yellow lines mean."  
  
"Marco," sighed Rachel, as we headed up the stairs, "your jokes just get lamer and lamer."  
  
"Wouldn't that be more and more lame?" suggested Cassie.  
  
"It's because you refuse to date me," I sighed. "I'm pining away."  
  
"Hurry up and pine quicker," she snorted. "The sooner you're gone . . . "  
  
She entered the classroom with Cassie. A few seconds later, Jake stepped in. I dawdled, and then went through the door. Everyone was in their seats, and Mr. Mkonge gave me that, "You're late and that's not good," look teachers all know.  
  
"Sorry," I said. "I got mugged." The class chuckled, and I dropped into my seat and napped with my eyes open for the next forty-five minutes. 


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter Four:  
  
  
  
"Your time is now up, please bring your tests to the front teaching desk," Mr. Mkonge said.  
  
The test had been ridiculously easy. It was all on what the guy had just taught. Seriously, all you had to do was be able to understand words and retain information for ten minutes to pass. I really don't know why they even bothered giving the test. Except maybe to make sure none of the students were high.  
  
No, I take that back. You could pass that test high.  
  
We crushed out of the room in a pack. Cassie stayed behind for a minute to talk to Mr. Mkonge, like she did every night.  
  
It was the fourth day of DE. Since we were still waiting on any word from Tobias or Erek on whether there were any commonalities among these swarms of new Controllers, we couldn't make a plan. And since we couldn't make a plan, we didn't have to break into anything or bleed. Not bleeding is my preference, so I was happy as a flea on a warm-blooded mammal. Which, speaking from personal experience, is pretty happy.  
  
Rachel was, of course, going stir-crazy.  
  
Down in the parking lot, Jake and I were hanging out, trying to act normal. Jake, Cassie, and Rachel were waiting for their rides. I was staying until I felt like flying home.  
  
Sometimes it's really convenient to have my dad for a dad.  
  
Jake was sitting on the sidewalk, watching a spider crawl along the pavement. A little weird, but war will do that to you, if you're not really, really careful. Like me. I laugh so I don't have to scream.  
  
Rachel and Cassie were arguing about some boy band with Melissa Chapman. They were pretty animated about it, which is a good thing. It's a very good thing Rachel didn't hear J.I. talking to me.  
  
J.I. is a guy who goes to my school. What was his last name? Oh, yeah. Nakochan. J.I. Nakochan. Anyway, he sort of sidled up to me, and glanced towards Cassie and Rachel. "Hey," he mumbled.  
  
"Hey," I responded.  
  
We sort of stood there for a couple seconds.  
  
"Are you, like . . . with them?"  
  
I wondered what he was talking about, until I realized he meant Cassie and Rachel. "Oh, yeah," I snorted. "Both of them. We go out on dates for three every Saturday. It can get tense, sometimes, but they try and keep their jealousy at bay."  
  
Like I would ever fall for Cassie or Rachel. Sure, I'd joke about it, but actually going out with them? Only in a really whacked reality. Maybe in a world where we tried making another sixth Animorph, even after what happened with David.  
  
"No way," I said. "They've both got . . . they're both interested. And I wouldn't mess with either of the guys involved if you value sweet life."  
  
It was at that point that J.I.'s parents came. I suspected he might be feeling pretty dumb. Lucky for him he asked me instead of Rachel. That way, he was only embarrassed instead of embalmed.  
  
I was hoping that Tom, Rachel's mom, and Cassie's dad would delay in picking them up, so we could talk about this new problem. But Cassie's dad was right on time, and Rachel's mom arrived just a few minutes after that. The rest of the kids drained away, until only Jake and I were left.  
  
"Is there some Sharing meeting tonight?" I asked, still a little suspicious that some controller might be listening in.  
  
"Yep," sighed Jake, standing up and brushing off his jeans. "He dropped me off on his way there. Said he won't be back until about . . . " he checked his watch, " . . . twenty minutes from now."  
  
"An evening in the life of Tom's Yeerk," I said, after making sure nobody was snooping around. "Drop Jake off at driving school, plot and plan the enslavement of the human race, slip a couple brothers and sisters into the ears of a few unsuspecting Sharing members, grovel to Visser Three for awhile, dash off to pick up Jake."  
  
"Marco," Jake growled.  
  
"Easy, Jake," I soothed. "I'll joke about Visser One next."  
  
Jake backed off. It helps, after I joke about Tom, to remind Jake that he isn't the only one with a family member that's been infested.  
  
How about I spare you that joke, O fearless leader? A red-tailed hawk dove from somewhere in the night sky to perch on the dumpster beside us.  
  
"Thanks, Tobias."  
  
"You know, it still amazes me that I would be cracking jokes about alien slugs with my best friend, be interrupted by a talking bird, and not find that at all strange," I commented.  
  
"We've gotten a little used to strange," Jake said, smiling.  
  
Right, Marco, confirmed Tobias. We have to deal with you all the time.   
  
"Oh, ouch," I groaned. "You prick me and I bleed. You tickle me and I laugh. You wrong me. Shall I not revenge?"  
  
"Huh?" asked Jake, clueless.  
  
Shakespeare. Merchant of Venice.   
  
"I thought it was Hamlet," I said.  
  
Nope. He ruffled his feathers smugly  
  
Jake stared at Tobias. "You read Shakespeare?"  
  
I have to do something with all my free time, he said.  
  
"Unreal," he groaned.  
  
Unfortunately, Shylock is the least of our worries.   
  
"Who?" I asked.  
  
You quote Merchant of Venice and you don't know who Shylock is? demanded Tobias, feigning shock.  
  
"I told you I thought it was Hamlet. I read it in a book of quotes, okay?"  
  
Cheater, he grumbled.  
  
"Tobias," Jake said, cutting through our chatter, "why is Shylock the least of our worries?"  
  
Tobias shifted his weight from talon to talon. It's something he does when he's not comfortable or happy. I talked to Erek after you told me to watch the new influx of Controllers, he said. A few are adults, almost all of them are teenagers. There's one big link throughout the whole group, though.   
  
"Which is?"  
  
They all go to Driver's Ed.   
  
We stared at him.  
  
"Oh, man," I said. "Oh, man."  
  
"That means they're using DE as an infestation point."  
  
"Don't drive drunk," I said. "Don't drive at all. Let a Yeerk do it for you. Jake, old buddy - for the next day and a week we are at ground zero on the new Yeerk membership drive."  
  
Membership *drive*, repeated Tobias, with special emphasis.  
  
"Yeah. Drive," Jake snorted. "Hah. Hah. The irony is killing me." 


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter Five:  
  
  
  
You think you look forward to the weekend when you're at school? Try knowing that every day you're in class is a day where you are in serious danger of getting an alien slug shoved up your ear, that will control your every movement, breath, and thought.  
  
Yeah, I was looking forward to the weekend.  
  
It was after school on Friday. The phone rang. "Hey, this is Marco," I said automatically.  
  
"Marco? Hi." It was Jake, of course. "What's happening?"  
  
"Not much. Hanging out."  
  
"Same here," he lied. Since war began, none of us have really done much 'hanging out.' And he definitely wasn't relaxed. "Listen, if you're not busy, we should get together someplace."  
  
"Sounds good. The usual hangout?"  
  
"Yeah," he chuckled. "What can I say? The theater is a cool place." We were really talking about Cassie's barn, and we both knew it. The theater stuff was thrown in to mess up anybody who might be listening in.  
  
"You bet. I'll see you there . . . six o'clock, maybe?"  
  
"Cool. Catch you then!"  
  
"Yup."  
  
I hung up the phone, and closed my Algebra book. One nice thing about being an Animorph is that homework always takes a backseat.  
  
  
  
An hour later, I was at the barn. I had flown, of course. Don't let anybody tell you otherwise, listen to the man who knows: there is *nothing* like flying with your own wings. Sky high, with only the air to hold you up, the sheer rush of it all, the weird, intense peace when you're riding pillars of warm air, with all your worries thousands and thousands of feet below you . . . well, it beats out everything except being a dolphin.  
  
I dove for the barn, and settled on the dusty floor. The fu-u-un has arrived! I sang, after making sure that Tobias and Ax really were the only ones there.  
  
It has? inquired Ax.  
  
It's an expression, Ax. It means, 'hit me, I'm a loser who has nothing better to do than watch Tarzan.'   
  
"Hrguhel, harghle," I guffawed hollowly through my still-forming mouth.  
  
What?   
  
"Ha, ha," I annunciated, now fully human. "This from the boy who reads Shakespeare in his spare time."  
  
Don't knock the bard, said the bird.  
  
I have read Shakespeare. He speaks a very peculiar dialect, Ax noted.  
  
"Let's not talk about Shakespeare," I groaned. "I failed that literature test. I don't want to have to deal with him on top of everything else."  
  
Very well, agreed Ax. Marco, have you seen the latest episode of "Pulse of Passion"? Shirley and Max agreed to divorce, while Eugene still has amnesia in Paris. Hannah and Linda are still fighting over John, but he's really interested in Edna's mysterious roommate.   
  
"Oookay. Actually, the Shakespeare discussion was good."  
  
"Hi, Tobias. Ax." Rachel had appeared from somewhere while we were talking.  
  
"What, no 'hello' for me?" I demanded.  
  
"Oh, sorry, Marco. I don't generally greet insect life."  
  
"What, you don't love your family?"  
  
Ha! Ha! exclaimed Ax.  
  
We all stared.  
  
Um, Ax-man, faltered Tobias, what was that?   
  
Rachel and Marco were engaging in humorous verbal sparring. Is laughter not the correct response?   
  
"Not for you," Rachel said bluntly, cutting off my witty repartee.  
  
Jake walked into the barn. "Hey, all." We offered our chorus of greetings. "Where's Cassie?" he asked.  
  
"I'm here," she said, entering right behind him. "Jake, I was nine steps behind you for half the path. Don't you ever turn around?"  
  
"Makes him dizzy," I supplied. "He always walks straight forward. It hurts a little when he runs into walls, but it's a price he's willing to pay."  
  
"Thanks, Marco."  
  
"No problem."  
  
Jake immediately switched into serious leader mode. "Okay, so. First things first. Does anyone have a clue where the actual infestation is taking place? I mean, is it in the building, or what? Has anyone seen anything suspicious?"  
  
"Question," snapped Rachel. "What are you talking about?"  
  
Jake peered at Tobias. "You didn't tell her?"  
  
I didn't get the chance. She's been gone all afternoon.   
  
"Where have you been?" Jake demanded.  
  
"Miraculously, I convinced Cassie to go to the mall with me."  
  
"No way," I gasped.  
  
"Yep," beamed Rachel.  
  
"I hated every minute of it, until I found the nature section of the bookstore."  
  
"I actually had to drag her away. She was buried under a mound of books on insect life and horse-care manuals."  
  
"You had to drag Cassie away?" asked Jake.  
  
From the mall? asked Tobias.  
  
"Are we sure she hasn't been infested?" asked Marco.  
  
Yeah, me. Just making sure you were really reading.  
  
Jake shook his head. "Tobias, fill them in."  
  
He told them what he had told us. Rachel was, to nobody's surprise, ready to swing into action. "So," she said simply, "we go to the Yeerk pool, burn a few slugs, disrupt class, everybody goes home happy!"  
  
"No," said Jake. "Sorry, it's not that easy. First, they can always supply more Yeerks, so simply killing the ones there wouldn't help anything."  
  
"Plus, we have to remember that these are sentient life forms," Cassie said.  
  
"They're the enemy," growled Rachel.  
  
"Second," interjected Jake, before the old argument could start up again, "we have no clue where the actual infestation is taking place. According to Tobias, these people didn't seem to go to any of the standard Yeerk pool entrances until after they were Controllers, so we figure they've got portable pools set up somewhere. Maybe in the city, we really have no way of knowing."  
  
Prince Jake, what is the format of these classes? Is there any time where the student is put in a position of vulnerability or seclusion?   
  
"Not really. We all assemble in the classroom, there's a brief five-minute break in the middle of the lecture, then we take a test at the end and leave. It's not exactly the most flexible schedule for infestation."  
  
"Hang on," said Cassie, sitting up. "That's not all there is to the class. There's also the six hours of driving practice."  
  
I said a word I won't print here. "You're right. Six hours alone with the teacher, driving wherever he tells you."  
  
Park there. Right next to that big staircase marked 'This way to the Yeerk Pool,' imagined Tobias.  
  
"That's got to be it," said Rachel. "So how do we deal with this?"  
  
"Follow one of the driving school cars first, to see where it goes, and work from there, I guess. We have to move fast, but let's not go so fast we get sloppy."  
  
"Jake, we may have a little problem," said Cassie.  
  
"What?"  
  
"I'm signed up to do my first two hours of driving tomorrow, and there's no way I can get out of it."  
  
"Sure there is," I said. "Don't show up. Go miniature golfing or something."  
  
"Not an option. The instructor is coming to my house, and my parents will be there to make sure I get in the car. If I just vanish for a couple hours, they're going to ask five million questions that you don't want answered when I get back. They've been a little suspicious recently. I think they think I've joined a gang. They're watching me like a hawk. I *am* going to have to get in that car tomorrow."  
  
Do humans watch hawks very often? inquired Ax. We ignored him. 


	6. Chapter 6

Chapter Six:  
  
  
  
This is a really, really bad plan, I announced. We were flying over the driving school car as it bustled down the highway. Do you realize how many things can go wrong with this plan? And do you realize what will happen if anything does go wrong?   
  
Marco, you're starting to repeat yourself.   
  
Actually, for half an hour of nonstop griping, he's doing a good job of keeping it original.   
  
The truth was, I wasn't at all happy about the plan. Cassie was supposed to get the instructor to stop somewhere obscure, and then we were supposed to fly down and slash the tires on the car. Rachel was carrying a heavy- duty razor blade in her talons. Tobias was keeping track of which car was Cassie's. Ax was memorizing where the car was headed. Jake was a cockroach inside the car, and I was flying general support, "just in case." Cassie was sitting in a car with a Controller who was having her drive herself to wherever it was she would be infested.  
  
How's it going, Jake? asked Tobias.  
  
It's kind of funny, actually, he chuckled. Cassie keeps 'accidentally' making wrong turns. I think she's starting to really get him lost.   
  
Hey, great! I said. Let's get him way out in the -   
  
Shoot, Jake grumbled.  
  
What? asked Rachel.  
  
The guy just pulled out a GPS.   
  
What is a GPS? Ax queried.  
  
A Global Positioning System, I supplied. It's a little box that's linked to satellites or something. Basically, there's no way he's gonna get lost now.   
  
We kept flying.  
  
Okay, Jake said. Here we go. She's making the request . . . he's going for it. All right, we're going to pull in at the next rest stop. Marco, Rachel, you fly ahead, land, get into the bathroom and start demorphing as soon as you get the go-ahead. Cassie, stall. Wait outside the bathroom. When I say, you two come out, and Cassie goes in. Stay in there as long as possible.   
  
Um, Jake? Boy and girl coming out of bathroom together? Does that sound normal to you?   
  
Does the idea of people changing into birds and fighting alien slugs sound normal to you, Rachel? he asked.  
  
Rachel's just afraid she'll be unable to contain her passionate desire for me in private, I explained.  
  
My passionate desire to kill you, maybe.   
  
Ha! Ha!   
  
Ax, I groaned.  
  
What was that? gasped Jake.  
  
That, said Tobias, was Ax laughing at Marco and Rachel's jokes.   
  
Ax-man, don't do that, okay?   
  
I do not understand, he grumbled.  
  
We both picked up speed and sloped down towards the rest stop. It was one of those dingy gas stations with a lone bathroom around the back of the building, tobacco-juice stains on the ground, and cigarette cartons caught in the ragged patches of grass that grew up between the cracks in the concrete. Pretty desolate, overall.  
  
I dropped down to the bathroom, and tugged at the doorknob with my talons. It isn't easy to open a door as a bird, I can tell you. It's even harder when the door is locked. Houston, we have a problem.   
  
Just tell me you aren't leaking gas, sniggered Rachel.  
  
What's the problem? Jake asked.  
  
The door is one of those where you have to get the key from Billy-Bo behind the counter. The bathroom's locked.   
  
There was a moment of silence. Marco, can you demorph?   
  
I looked around. I had dropped into the shadow of one of those plastic cigarette cutouts they have at gas stations. No way. A big, old semi is parked right in front of me, and the driver's sitting in the seat. I can't tell whether he's awake or asleep, but I don't think we can take the chance.   
  
Okay, new plan, said Jake, quickly. I saw Cassie's car pulling into the lot. Cassie. Get the key, unlock the bathroom, go in. Rachel, Marco, get in there with her. Demorph. I'll have Tobias let you know when it's safe to come out.   
  
I watched Cassie leave the car. Rachel landed on top of the truck. Cassie entered the gas station. A few minutes later, she came back out, jingling a key loudly. She unlocked the door, and held it open, giving a fair impression of having stubbed her toe on the doorjamb. I hopped in, and perched on the toilet. A second or two later, Rachel flew in, flaring her wings wildly. She bounced off the wall with a colorful phrase and rolled under the sink. Cassie shut the door. "You okay, Rachel?" she whispered.  
  
Yep. I'm just dandy, she growled from the darkness.  
  
Ah, the glamorous life of an Animorph, I sighed. 


	7. Chapter 7

Chapter Seven:  
  
  
  
Rachel, Cassie and I were stuffed into the tiny bathroom. I was very, very glad Ax wasn't in with us. Andalites tend to get a little claustrophobic. As in a lot claustrophobic. More claustrophobic than the only guy small enough to fit through the arch-villain's ventilation ducts.  
  
That's right. *That* claustrophobic. And this was definitely not a good time to have a panic attack.  
  
I began to demorph. In case you didn't know, morphing isn't pretty. And it's really random. If Spielberg could watch one person demorph, we'd have a five-part movie series dedicated to the concept. So you can imagine that Rachel and I demorphing with Cassie already in the bathroom was just about as bad as it got, short of the Yeerk pool.  
  
I don't know what I looked like, demorphing. But I got an excellent view of a bald eagle turning into Rachel. I saw all her feathers ooze up to the top of her head, so she was bald except for a feather afro. Then the feathers thinned, as if the eagle had some kind of disease. The beak sucked into her face. Her legs had contorted, and her wings were growing fingers. At that moment, she looked like a creature straight from the freak shops of the greatest horror movies ever made. I wanted to scream. I so wanted to scream.  
  
If anybody ever tells you that you get used to morphing after awhile, never buy anything from them, and definitely don't date them. They are liars. I wanted to run, to wake up. So instead I said, My, you look ravishing this afternoon, Rachel. Wherever did you find your costume?   
  
She squawked something threatening at me. Her ability to thoughtspeak had just vanished, which was a good thing, because whatever she had in mind was probably rude.  
  
Cassie was backed up against a wall, muttering occasional ouches and watch- your-wing-Marcos. "For the record, this is a low point of my career as an Animorph," she grimaced.  
  
I was fully demorphed. Rachel's skin was just losing its goose pimples from when she looked like Thanksgiving dinner, and her feet were adjusting to the right number of toes. "No way, Cassie," I said, sounding surprised. "Sharing about three cubic feet of room with two freaks of nature in order to avoid having an alien slug put in your ear by your evil driving instructor is a low point? Gee, that would just about make my week."  
  
"Seriously," grimaced Rachel, pulling her hand through her finally normal hair. "What's your problem, Cassie?"  
  
Okay, guys, said Jake, I'm going to have to assume there are no problems in there.   
  
"That depends on how you define a problem," I muttered. "Rachel has her elbow in my ribs, and Cassie has been putting all her weight on my foot for the last three minutes."  
  
"Sorry," whispered Cassie, moving her foot. The pain in my ribs increased as Rachel shoved her elbow harder into my side.  
  
Ax, how long do we have in morph? Jake asked.  
  
One of your hours and seventeen of your minutes remain, Prince Jake.   
  
Two things, Ax, sighed Jake.  
  
Yes, Prince Jake. They are everybody's minutes, and I am not to call you 'Prince.'   
  
Right. Okay, Tobias, how are we looking in terms of leaving the john?   
  
"Did he just call the restroom a john?" snickered Cassie.  
  
"Did you just call the bathroom a restroom?" I inquired.  
  
"Did you just call this stink-hole a bathroom?" Rachel chimed in. Cassie passed her a discreet high-five. Well, as discreet as you can be when you're breathing each other's carbon dioxide.  
  
Jake, I just buzzed the truck. The guy is asleep, but he's moving. I don't think he's sleeping very hard. It wouldn't take much to wake him up.   
  
Well, we definitely don't want him seeing anything unusual. Tobias . . . is there any way that you can obstruct his view?   
  
Obstruct it? he asked, not getting what Jake was saying.  
  
Well . . . Jake's tone was a little chagrined. You've been a bird longest; I figure you've got the best aim. Otherwise, I'd ask Ax to do it.   
  
"Is he asking what I think he's asking?"  
  
"I'm afraid so."  
  
There was a pause, then Tobias started to chuckle. Oh. Okay. Another pause. Okay, big Jake. Job's done. One highway blizzard in place.   
  
Rachel looked insulted for Tobias's sake. Cassie coughed, in a poor attempt to hide her amusement.  
  
Okay, Marco, Rachel, get out of there. Rachel, don't forget the knife.   
  
She won't. She's with Marco, remember?   
  
Hang on, said Jake. Nobody move. Mr. Instructor is leaving the car. Ax, where's he going? I can't see with these eyes!   
  
He appears to be heading into the structure itself.   
  
Huh? Why?   
  
I do not know.   
  
Maybe he's thirsty, Tobias suggested.  
  
I do not believe he was participating in commerce, Ax said. He is emerging with another man from the interior, and heading around the side of the building, towards the bathroom.   
  
What does he think he's doing? Okay, Tobias, are Marco and Rachel still clear?   
  
For another five seconds, maybe.   
  
Okay, you two. Move out. Try getting on the other side of the truck from them. We really, really don't want any surprises.   
  
"He'd better not be coming to check up on me," was the last thing I heard Cassie say before I closed the door.  
  
We ran to the truck. It was parked at an angle, and, since the engine was off, Rachel and I dropped out of sight behind the cab. We probably presented a very odd picture. She was in a leotard, I was in spandex. I could just picture what would happen if anybody saw us. 'Who us? Oh, we're the swimming mime bicyclists. We travel from town to town, pretending to ride our bikes into lakes. The costumes add to the realism of the thing.'  
  
Well, you try coming up with a better explanation on the spot.  
  
The instructor and the other man came into view, and lounged outside the bathroom. Jake instructed Cassie to wait. After about five minutes, the instructor finally pounded on the door.  
  
"Come on, kid! It doesn't take anybody this long to use the john."  
  
"He called it a john, too," I whispered. Rachel silenced me with an impatient gesture.  
  
You might as well come out, Cassie. We don't want to make a scene.   
  
Cassie stepped out. "Sorry," she said simply.  
  
The two men grabbed her by the arms. She started tugging and shouting, the way any teenager might under those circumstances.  
  
That was when I heard the instructor say, "No host is worth this much trouble!"  
  
It was what his friend said that chilled me to the bone. "Come on, the pool's around back. Grab her legs!"  
  
Jake, said Tobias, I think we may have to make a scene. 


	8. Chapter 8

Chapter Eight:  
  
  
  
I love my life. I was hiding behind a truck, watching my best friend's almost-not-really girlfriend being dragged off to have an alien slug shoved in her ear. Meanwhile, that best buddy of mine was a cockroach in a car, and all the help I had was two birds, neither of which were really birds, and a girl with a death wish. What's not to love?  
  
That was sarcasm, for all you Andalites out there.  
  
Cassie was one step ahead of all of us. She did the only logical thing she could do. Screamed bloody murder. "What IS this place? I go to use the BATHROOM, for crying out loud, and there's a BOY and GIRL in there! Doing who KNOWS what!"  
  
I snickered. Well, it was probably the safest thing Cassie could say, for all of us. It did explain why one girl went in and three kids came out. Rachel punched me in the stomach, and I stopped laughing.  
  
"THEN I come out and you ABDUCT me? HELP! POLICE! Someone call 9-1-1! HEEEEEEEEEEELP!"  
  
Okay, make it real! yelled Jake. Try and help, but don't morph! You're a normal couple!   
  
I knew Rachel was going to get Cassie back for this.  
  
We ran forward, adding to the general commotion. "Hey! What are you doing?" I shouted.  
  
"You jerk! Get off her!" Rachel. Of course.  
  
Then things got very loud and confused. I'm not exactly sure what happened. Things were moving fast. I do know that those two Controllers were tougher than they looked. It was three of us against two of them and they still managed to keep hold of Cassie and keep us back.  
  
"That's it!" I yelled. "We're calling the cops!" I dragged Rachel away from the fight, and started running, praying the controllers would follow us.  
  
"Let 'em go!" snorted one man.  
  
"You moron, they're witnesses! Come on!"  
  
I heard an all too familiar noise.  
  
TSSSSEEEEEEEEEEEWWW!  
  
A cigarette ad disintegrated. These guys had dracon beams.  
  
"The woods," I panted. Rachel just nodded. Given the fact that we were about twenty years younger than the Controllers, with any luck we'd have them lost in no time. I looked back, just in time to see them hauling Cassie up to the side of the truck. What I saw next really scared me.  
  
Through of the side of the truck - not out of a door or anything, but actually *through* the truck itself, came two scaly, bladed arms. They pushed through it like ghosts in a horror movie. They grabbed Cassie, and yanked her into the truck. Through the side. As if it wasn't there. Then, leaving the pristine white truck, the two Controllers started after us.  
  
I said something ungentlemanly, and began to run. Boys and girls, I ran as if my life depended on it. Because, see, it did. Rachel was up ahead, easily outdistancing all of us with her long legs.  
  
"Turn right!" I shouted, my breath ragged.  
  
We turned into a part of the forest thick with undergrowth. The Controllers followed suit. I hoped the ivy we were crashing through was poison ivy. The Yeerks deserved it.  
  
I was already tired, and running on sheer adrenaline. I began to look for a place to lose them, somewhere we could morph. Although, I didn't really even want to think about how exhausted I would be after morphing a second time. Morphing takes a lot out of you. I looked up, and realized I had come in a long, ugly loop. I was almost at the point where I had entered the woods in the first place. The white truck frowned at me from the gas station.  
  
The white truck with Hork-Bajir inside. The white truck with what had to be holograms for walls. The white truck where Cassie was being . . . well, who knew what was happening to Cassie.  
  
TSSSEEEEEEEEEEEWW!  
  
Beside me, a tree exploded. Oh, right. The Controller. The dracon beam. Mustn't forget.  
  
"Rachel, the truck!"  
  
"What about it?"  
  
"Head for the gas station!"  
  
"WHAT?"  
  
I broke free of the forest, and poured all my remaining energy into that run. I even outdistanced Rachel. I reached the truck and scrambled up onto the platform, shoving my head through the hologram and into the interior of the truck.  
  
Five Hork-Bajir stared back at me in blank surprise. A scared-looking Cassie was being held by one of them. Towards the front of the flatbed was what looked like a kiddy pool with a glass top. A Yeerk pool.  
  
"Oh, sh - " I began, then lost my momentary balance and fell backwards out of the truck. Rachel grabbed me and hauled me to my feet.  
  
"Come on!" she said. "The car!"  
  
Of course. The driving instructor's car was sitting right there. Jake was at the wheel, wearing the ever-popular spandex. "Get in," he grated. I dropped into the back, while Rachel slid into the passenger seat. "No need to buckle, kids. I don't think it will help." He lit the engine up and began tearing out of the parking lot.  
  
"Jake," I said, leaning forward, "Cassie's in there. With Hork-Bajir. And a Yeerk pool!"  
  
"What?" said Rachel.  
  
"I know," he grunted, jumping a curb as he swung out into the empty highway.  
  
"You WHAT?" I demanded.  
  
"Ax figured it out while you and Rachel were off playing hide-and-go-seek."  
  
"Jake, you're leaving Cassie behind!" Rachel hissed, twisted in her seat, looking back at the truck.  
  
"Yeah, I know that, too." He gunned the engine, rocketing down the empty highway.  
  
"WHY are we driving away?" she shouted.  
  
It clicked. "Because," I said, "the walls are transparent from the inside."  
  
"SO?"  
  
"So," said Jake, "they saw us morph. They know who we are."  
  
I heard a low roar. In the rear view mirror, I saw the truck pulling out after us.  
  
Oh, yeah. They knew, all right. 


	9. Chapter 9

Chapter Nine:  
  
  
  
SCCRRRRRRRREEEEEEEEEECCCHHHH!  
  
Enraged tires screamed as we flew over the road. Behind us, the white semi was building up speed, and coming up behind us fast. Very fast. Way, way too fast.  
  
"Marco," Jake grated through clenched teeth, "watch that truck. Tell me if he tries anything funny."  
  
"Well, he's pulling out a pie and putting on clown makeup," I began, then fell silent at a glare from Rachel. "There's nothing funny about this, Jake. He's just bearing down on us. Oh, man, we are toast if he hits us. Serious toast."  
  
"Well, we'll have to make sure he doesn't!" Jake grunted, and stepped hard on the brake, bringing the car around in a hard U-turn. I was so very glad the highway was empty, aside from us. Any traffic would have meant instant death. Not that death wasn't staring us in the face anyway.  
  
SSSSSSSCCCCCCCCCCRRRRRRRRRRREEEEEEEEEECCCCHHHH!  
  
But by now, I'm pretty familiar with that particular stare.  
  
The truck was doing something weird. It had slowed, and was now emitting a low, grinding noise. I could feel the vibration coming up through the bottom of the car. Then the cab detached itself from the bed, and swung around with startling speed. It clanked, jerked, reattached to the bed, and started after us again.  
  
"Whoah!" I shouted. "Did you see that?"  
  
"No."  
  
"That truck just changed directions in about two seconds! They've modified it somehow. You're not going to be able to lose it in a turn."  
  
"And it's doing one-seventy-five, easy."  
  
"One hundred and seventy-five miles per hour?"  
  
"Yup."  
  
"It shouldn't be able to make that kind of speed, should it?"  
  
"Nope."  
  
SSSSSCCCCCRRREEEEEEEEEEEEEECCCHHH!  
  
TSEEEEEEW!  
  
"Are they shooting at us?" Rachel demanded.  
  
"Unless they're shooting at the air right behind us," I reported, "then, yeah. They're shooting at us."  
  
"Oh, I am so going to kick their Yeerk teeth in!" Guess who.  
  
"Where are Tobias and Ax?" I asked.  
  
"I don't know," Jake grunted. "Up, somewhere. Morph gorilla and make like a phone."  
  
He wanted me to relay messages in thoughtspeak. I was exhausted, but began to morph anyway. I concentrated on the gorilla inside me, and felt the tickling sensation of rich black fur covering my body. My face broadened and flattened, and my biceps bulged from here to the North Pole. I hunched lower, now uncomfortably large in the compact vehicle. Then the gorilla instincts kicked in. The gorilla was terrified of being trapped in the fast-moving car. Well, he wasn't the only one.  
  
This is Monkey-Man calling Bird-Boy, I announced. Come in, Bird-Boy.   
  
Hey, Marco.   
  
Got 'em, I informed Jake.  
  
"Where are they?"  
  
Where are you?   
  
About a hundred feet above you and your escort.   
  
Ax, are you there?   
  
Yes.   
  
Are both of you all right?   
  
We're . . .   
  
TSSSEEEEEEW!  
  
That shot wasn't aimed at us.  
  
We're target practice.   
  
"Tell them to get low," said Jake. "Right above the truck. They won't be able to hit them there."  
  
Jake, are you nuts? That's a hologram, remember?   
  
"Okay, so tell them to dodge. And ask them what's around that blind curve up ahead."  
  
Jake says to try not to get shot.   
  
TSSEEEEEEEEEEW!  
  
Gee. What a good idea.   
  
What's around that curve up ahead?   
  
Ummm . . . Jake, don't go around that curve.   
  
"Ask him why."  
  
I asked.  
  
TSSEEEEEEEEEEW!  
  
SCCCRRRRREEEEEEEEECCCHHH!  
  
Landslide, said Tobias. The road is covered in rocks. Take that curve at your speed and your car will crumple like a toddler after a sugar rush.   
  
"Good."  
  
Good? I shouted. Good? You mean we're . . .   
  
Rachel's face lit up. Jake had a dangerous expression on his.  
  
Oh, man, I moaned. Oh, man! Tobias, tell my dad I love him.   
  
Prince Jake, surely you are not going to intentionally involve yourself in a high-speed collision?   
  
He pressed the gas harder, and squinted at the upcoming curve.  
  
TSSEEEEEEEEEEEW!  
  
"Yeeeeeeeeeeee-HAW!" shouted Rachel.  
  
This is insane!   
  
"Throw yourself clear when I tell you. Ready? Ready . . . "  
  
TSSEEEEEEEEEEW!  
  
This is such a bad idea. The curve rushed forward at us. This is such a really, really bad idea.   
  
"Ready . . . "  
  
TSSEEEEEEEEEEW!  
  
I grabbed the door, preparing to launch myself like a rocket. Every hair on my body was standing on end.  
  
SCCCCRRRRRRRRRREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEECCCHHHHH!  
  
TSSEEEEEEEEEEEW! TSSEEEEEEEEEW! TSSEEEEEEEEW!  
  
"Now!"  
  
Noooo! This is SO -   
  
I flew out of the car, and the last thing I heard was the sickening crunch of my spine snapping. 


	10. Chapter 10

Chapter Ten:  
  
  
  
"Marco. Hey, Marco, demorph."  
  
"Aw, can't we leave him like that?"  
  
Marco, that body is seriously injured. It would be wise for you to demorph.   
  
Not exactly the words I had expected upon entering Heaven. Carefully, I opened one eye. My friends were gathered around me, kind of like at the end of "A Knight's Tale." Hey, that was a good movie. I was sad I wouldn't get to watch it ever again. Now that I was dead.  
  
"Come on, Marco, demorph."  
  
Oh, Cassie was in Heaven. Yeah, that made sense. Cassie was a nice person.  
  
"I'm still for leaving him like that. It's better-looking than his normal body."  
  
I focused on Rachel. Okay, maybe I wasn't dead. Rachel should not be in Heaven. Valhalla, sure, but that wasn't the same thing.  
  
Monkey got hurt? I croaked.  
  
"Yeah," said Jake. "Pretty bad."  
  
Told you that stunt was a dumb idea. I realized I couldn't feel my legs. Or my chest. Or my arms. Couldn't move them, either. Was I a Controller?  
  
"Hurry up and demorph, Marco, before I hurt the monkey worse," said Rachel. I was touched by her tender concern. She was putting Florence Nightingale to shame.  
  
I can't. I said, simply. I'm a Controller.   
  
"WHAT?"  
  
I can't move. This isn't what I thought it would be like, though.   
  
"Marco, you can't move because your spinal cord has been severed."  
  
Then I am dead after all. People with broken necks die. You know, Heaven shouldn't be this dirty. I want to talk to the manager.   
  
You're not dead, just paralyzed. And that will go away if you demorph.   
  
Oh. Then I guess I should demorph.   
  
"Yeah. Demorphing might be a good idea."  
  
I thought about me. Marco. Marco the cute. Marco the brave. Marco the brilliant. Pictured myself. Slowly, I felt myself shrink, felt the strength of the gorilla leave me. Felt feeling come back into my limbs.  
  
I sat up. The whole crew was gathered around me like doctors around an operating table.  
  
"Ladies and gentlemen, please. I'll be handing autographs out after the concert, just stand back."  
  
They gave me a little room. I stood, still a little disoriented. But, you know what? I could stand up. My heart was still beating. That always just about makes my day after practically committing suicide. I blinked. "Look, it's Cassie without her bodyguard."  
  
The truck followed your automobile around the curve, explained Ax. According to Cassie, they assumed that we were feeding you information about the road, and guessed that it was safe on the other side. They followed and were subsequently killed in the crash.   
  
Cassie hung her head. It amazed me how she could mourn the death of her enemies. I don't know if I'll ever have that much empathy.  
  
Hang on, wait a minute.  
  
"Wasn't there a Yeerk pool in the truck?"  
  
Rachel looked down. She raised her foot and brought it down hard on something I couldn't see. Yup.   
  
I felt a sick knot twist in my stomach. It's a feeling I've come to recognize, and it's a feeling I really hate. It's suspicion of my friends. "How did you survive?" I asked.  
  
"I morphed roach."  
  
"In the middle of a truck full of Hork-Bajir and Yeerks?"  
  
"It was that or be infested."  
  
"She did morph roach," said Jake. "We found her after the crash. Apparently, roach is the body to use if you have to get in a car accident. She held up much better than you."  
  
It was such an ugly thought, I hated to think it. But we couldn't take the chance. "Cassie, I hate to be the one who has to suggest this, but . . . how do we know you're not a Controller?"  
  
That woke them all up. They stopped and eyed Cassie. I couldn't believe they hadn't already realized it was a possibility. Man, they'd lose the war in an hour if I weren't around to think for them.  
  
"Well," she said, "I'm not. How do you want me to prove it to you? Lock me up for three days?"  
  
"I'd rather avoid that, if possible," mused Jake. "You have a Hork-Bajir morph . . . "  
  
She shifted her weight uncomfortably. I understood why. Her experiences in that morph had not exactly been the most pleasant. "I'm not sure they would want me using the morph for this."  
  
Cassie, the Hork-Bajir wouldn't want us to be divided by suspicion. What better use could there possibly be? Ax prodded.  
  
She looked doubtful.  
  
"Cassie, hesitation doesn't look good right about now." It was a harsh thing to say. It was the truth.  
  
"Okay," she said. "But only for a minute." She began to morph.  
  
The first thing to change was her neck. It just stretched out and out and out, until it was about three feet long. She swung her head to the left and to the right, a surprised expression on her face. Then her feet changed, and a tail unrolled from her back. Blades shot out of her now- scaly skin, and her face erupted into the beaked visage of a Hork-Bajir.  
  
"Cassie, no hard feelings but . . . Ax, would you mind?"  
  
Ax had, apparently, been expecting the order. He brought his tail within twitching distance of her throat. I am sorry, Cassie.   
  
"I understand," she grated, in her deep, gravelly, Hork-Bajir voice. "Here goes."  
  
She brought one scaly hand up and sliced open her own head.  
  
Oh, did I forget to explain all this? Hork-Bajir have the ability to perform open brain surgery on themselves. It smarts like crazy, but their heads heal back up quickly and they don't die in the process. I guess neurosurgery is not the most advanced field on the Hork-Bajir homeworld.  
  
She grunted slightly, and lifted the skin flap, exposing her actual brain. I thought I was going to be sick. But there was no Yeerk there. Ax let his tail relax, and we all breathed a heavy sigh of relief.  
  
"Okay, Cassie, you can demorph," said Jake.  
  
"So that's it, then," I said. "Mission's over, everyone goes home happy. No more screaming or bleeding, right?"  
  
Jake and Ax exchanged an uncomfortable look.  
  
"Right?" I prompted.  
  
"Wrong," said Rachel, flatly.  
  
"Sorry, Marco, but things are just getting interesting," Jake sighed.  
  
I groaned, and sat down on a rock. "How interesting?"  
  
"Very interesting."  
  
"Oh, no."  
  
Cassie had demorphed. "Remember, there are still hundreds of kids in Driver's Ed getting infested every weekend."  
  
"But we did it!" I exclaimed. "I mean, we made the bad truck go boom! End of story, cut to Ax at Cinnabon!"  
  
Marco, I've seen over thirty other trucks driving around, identical to this one.   
  
"How identical?" I asked Tobias.  
  
Exactly identical. Down to every nick, scratch, and dent.   
  
Oh, man. We were going to have to take out every single one? I didn't even want to think about that. "I am just not going to break my neck thirty more times, Jake. Not happening."  
  
Jake's jaw was set, and his eyes were focused on a piece of twisted metal a couple yards away. "Let's hope it doesn't come to that, Marco. Let's hope." 


	11. Chapter 11

Chapter Eleven:  
  
  
  
I slunk into my house at around four o'clock. The crash had been at two, and then we had spent two hours flying home. I seriously needed to do something normal. It was still Saturday, and my dad was watching a TV special about quantum physics. He was completely engrossed. My dad is a scientist, and stuff like that utterly fascinates him. He'd probably get along really well with Ax.  
  
I dropped onto the couch beside him, breaking him from his reverie.  
  
"Hi, Dad."  
  
"Oh, hi, Marco! Where've you been all day?"  
  
"Hanging out with Jake," I said. "The usual, you know."  
  
"Really? You two off overturning buses again?"  
  
I shot him a look. His guess was scarily accurate. Was the man a Controller? Could he possibly -  
  
Sheesh, Marco, get a grip. I remembered the old joke Dad and I had about how I was in a gang. I guess it was funny. I'd come home late, and he'd accuse me of going out on a graffiti run with Jake.  
  
"Yeah," I said, forcing a smile. "You know us. Hooligans to the core."  
  
"Mm-hm." He stared at the TV, his eyes bulging a little. All of a sudden, he jumped up, and started yelling at the screen. "What! What are you talking about? Don't you people read scientific journals? Haven't you ever heard of Heisenberg's Uncertainty Principle?"  
  
Some guys' dads yell at their favorite team. My dad yells at Quantum Physics specials.  
  
Hey, it's more normal than the rest of my life.  
  
  
  
I had trouble sleeping, that night. My dreams were all about cars slamming into stationary objects, and about the stomach-churning sound of that lifeline we call the spine snapping like a used toothpick. About my friends sitting on clouds with harps, and then turning into Hork-Bajir and cutting themselves into pieces. The scary thing is, that that was fairly tame compared to other dreams I've had.  
  
Around one in the morning, the phone rang. Ever since this war began, I've kept the phone right by my bed. We always tend to have emergencies just as I'm dropping off into real sleep.  
  
I grabbed the handset. "Yes, I'd like one large pepperoni pizza," I mumbled.  
  
"Marco, are you awake?"  
  
"Yeah, Jake. Of course I am. What kind of freak would be asleep at one AM?" He didn't say a word. When Jake gets quiet, it's a bad sign. "What's up? Besides us, I mean."  
  
"I was just thinking about Cassie, and I can't sleep. I've got to talk to somebody." He affected the voice of somebody deep in like - which should have been easy for him, considering. Still, he wasn't calling me because of a crush. Something had happened.  
  
"Jake, when I'm in love and awake, I find it helps to knock your head against the wall thirty times or so." That, for all of you who aren't CIA code-breakers, meant I'd be at the barn in thirty minutes.  
  
"But I'm worried that might wake my parents up, and then I'd have to explain the cracks in the wall," he said. "How about I make it fifteen and try to think about basketball instead?" Translated: Be at the basketball court in fifteen minutes.  
  
"Yeah," I said. "That's good, too. Let me know how it works."  
  
"Will do." He hung up.  
  
I stretched, half-eager to leave my ugly dreams. I opened the window, feeling the rush of warm night air against my face, and glanced down at the street below. Empty. Good.  
  
I stripped down to the spandex that I wear pretty much constantly. I focused on the bird DNA inside me. Twelve minutes later, I was at the basketball court, demorphing.  
  
"You made good time," Jake said.  
  
"A call from our fearless leader demands instant action," I said, my voice bouncing off the smooth floor of the court. We were at the indoor basketball court at an old exercise center Jake and I used to play one-on- one in. This wasn't exactly a standard meeting place - something must have really been up with Cassie if we couldn't meet in the barn.  
  
"Okay, so. What's the deal?" I demanded. "I take it you didn't ask me here out of a fit of nostalgia."  
  
He shook his head. "I talked to Ax after we all split up. The fact that there was no Yeerk in Cassie's Hork-Bajir brain says nothing."  
  
"Uh-huh," I said. "Figured that was too good to be true. Go on, tell me why not."  
  
"According to Ax, a morph is formed from DNA only. If she is infested, the Yeerk would be wrapped around her brain in Z-space, not the morph copy's brain."  
  
I crossed my arms in disgust. "So you just let her walk away from there? Great, thanks. We'll be Controllers by morning."  
  
"Give me a little credit, Marco. She's been under constant surveillance since the crash. On the spur of the moment, Rachel decided it was time for the two of them to spend an afternoon at the mall. When they got back to Cassie's house, Tobias suddenly got tired of sleeping in a tree, and he's been in her room all night. So far, she hasn't done anything."  
  
"So, when do we take her up to the shack?" The shack was an old, abandoned building way out in the woods. When Jake had been a Controller, we kept him there for three days - long enough to starve the Yeerk out of his brain.  
  
"We're going to give her tonight to try and contact the Yeerks," he said. "We'll take her up first thing tomorrow morning."  
  
"Why the wait?"  
  
"A couple reasons," he said. "First, if she does try anything, we'll know for sure whether or not she's a Controller. Right now, all we have is suspicion. Second, the longer she's free before we tip our hand, the shorter the time we'll have to hold her."  
  
I nodded. That made sense. But did it make enough sense to risk exposing us? "Are you sure about this, Big Jake?"  
  
Something about the emptiness of the court made the look he gave me just that much more creepy. In his eyes, I saw fear, self-doubt, guilt, anxiety, frustration, anger, hatred, and confusion. What he said was, "Yeah, Marco. I'm sure." 


	12. Chapter 12

Chapter Twelve:  
  
  
  
The next morning, Jake called a meeting at the barn. I met Rachel in the air on the way there.  
  
Hey.   
  
Hey.   
  
With the possibility of Cassie being a Controller, neither of us was much for bright, enthusiastic greetings.  
  
Is she still being watched? I asked.  
  
Before Tobias left, Ax had her come down to look at some animal tracks in one of the pastures. He was very concerned that they might belong to a mountain lion.   
  
Ooh, scary. Did she hold his hand and tell him it was okay?   
  
Rachel didn't answer, but then I didn't expect her to. We sighted the barn at about the same time and fell into a pair of long dives.  
  
All clear inside? I asked.  
  
Come on in. The party's just getting started. Tobias sounded the way he usually does when he stays up all night. Cranky. Very cranky.  
  
Did she try anything last night? inquired Rachel.  
  
Not a thing. But did that mean Tobias got any rest? Nope. Not a wink. Not a jot or a tiddle.   
  
Tobias . . .   
  
We swooped in, and started demorphing. Cassie was there, cleaning out animal cages calmly. I watched her out of the corner of my eye. She seemed normal.  
  
Hah. Like that meant anything.  
  
"Hi, Marco. Hi, Rachel."  
  
"You'll notice," I said, as soon as my mouth had formed, "she said my name first. And with more enthusiasm. She said your name with sort of a forced, phony cheerfulness. Almost as if it was a chore. Obviously, she likes me more than you."  
  
"Marco. Do you talk in hopes that people won't notice that you were born without a brain?"  
  
I sat down on a bale of hay, and we kept up our verbal sparring. All as part of the act. We couldn't afford to let Cassie - or, rather, Cassie's Yeerk, if she had one - suspect anything.  
  
"Ha! Ha!" exclaimed a voice from outside.  
  
Oh, man, groaned Tobias. Ax, I thought we talked about that!   
  
"Sorry," he said, as he staggered into the barn and began demorphing. In private thoughtspeak, he whispered, I thought it wise to behave in a normal manner, to avoid giving the Yeerk cause for alarm.   
  
Weirdly enough, for Ax, that was normality. Is my life insane or what?  
  
Jake walked in, and I jumped up from my bale of hay, saluted, and started humming "Hail To the Chief," in nasal, off-key tones.  
  
"Nee, neener-nee! Neener-neener-neener, nee-OW!" I dropped to the bale again, rubbing my stomach. Rachel smiled sweetly and brushed her hair back. Cassie stifled a grin as she scrubbed the cage.  
  
"Thanks, Marco," Jake said.  
  
"See?" I demanded. "He liked it!"  
  
"Thanks more, Rachel."  
  
"See?" she smirked. "He liked it."  
  
"Okay, boys and girls," Jake sighed. "Time for the plan."  
  
"Oyez, oyez, oyez," I announced, and then shied back as Rachel feinted another punch.  
  
Can we get on with the plan? grumped Tobias.  
  
"Yeah," Jake acknowledged. "Cassie, what did the inside of that truck look like?"  
  
"Well," she said, thoughtfully stripping off her gloves, "the walls were clear on the inside. You could feel them, but it looked for all the world like we were just riding on a platform behind the cab. There were five Hork-Bajir inside, and a Yeerk pool with a glass cover overtop of it."  
  
"A cover?" prompted Rachel.  
  
"Right. I guess they didn't want the Yeerks sloshing around too much."  
  
How was the cover sealed? asked Ax.  
  
"It was bolted on," she said. "I think the truck was just for transport. They didn't even try to infest me."  
  
Jake exchanged a glance with Ax, and sighed. "Okay, good enough." He turned towards the door. "You can come in now," he announced.  
  
Ax stepped forward, and held his blade to Cassie's throat. At the same moment, in through the barn doors walked . . .  
  
Well, in walked Cassie, for all any of us could see.  
  
"What are you doing?" Cassie - the one a twitch away from decapitation - asked. "What's going on?"  
  
"You remember Linda, who plays you during particularly lengthy missions." Jake said. Oh, right. Stupid of me not to figure it out immediately. The other Cassie was a Chee. The Chee, in case you haven't been tracking along, are androids with hologram technology. Under the hologram, they look kind of like metal dogs. But the hologram itself can look however they want it to.  
  
Cassie frowned, then her face cleared to a look of blank surprise. "Is that what all this is about? That's why I haven't been alone since yesterday? I thought I had proven I wasn't a Controller!"  
  
Sorry, Tobias grunted. Z-space hurt your credibility.   
  
"Let's take a walk in the woods," Jake said. "When we get out of view from the house, Marco and Rachel will morph wolf, I'll morph tiger, Ax and Tobias stay themselves. Got it?"  
  
Cassie nodded readily. "Absolutely. I definitely want this cleared up, once and for all."  
  
I began to doubt my doubts. A Yeerk wouldn't agree so easily to starvation, would it? Cassie, of course, would recognize how necessary this measure was, and approve of it. But the Yeerk, if there was one, knew that, and could be counting on the fact that we knew it, too. Still, what sane Yeerk would earnestly agree to its own death as Cassie just had? Animorph or Yeerk? Cassie or Controller?  
  
"Let's do it," said Rachel. 


	13. Chapter 13

Chapter Thirteen:  
  
  
  
I tightened the last knot that bound Cassie to the chair. She hadn't given us any trouble whatsoever on the way up to the shack.  
  
"You know," I said, thoughtfully, "one of these days, we should really put a nice, comfortable chair up here. I'm thinking recliner. If you have to sit around all day for three days, might as well have a recliner, right?"  
  
"I second that," chirped Cassie, tugging on the ropes slightly. "Marco, it's a little loose by my feet."  
  
I stooped, and reworked the knot. "Better?"  
  
"Much. Thanks."  
  
"Okay," said Jake. "Let's step outside for a second."  
  
We followed him, leaving the door open so we could make sure Cassie wasn't morphing.  
  
Jake spoke quietly enough that Cassie couldn't hear him. "Obviously, we need to keep Cassie under observation twenty-four-seven."  
  
"Twenty-four-three," I corrected.  
  
"Whatever. Ax, you get the night watch. Sunrise to sunset."  
  
"And that's when Ax began his journey towards being a vampire," I intoned. "When Jake forced him to become a creature of night!"  
  
What is a vampire? inquired Ax.  
  
Depends on whether you're watching Buffy or Dracula, Tobias said.  
  
Ah, yes. Buffy the Vampire Slayer. I have seen it on the television, but I do not understand it.   
  
"That makes six of us," I said.  
  
"Hey, I understand Buffy!" Rachel claimed.  
  
"People! A little focus here!" exclaimed Jake. We looked at him. "As I was saying," he continued wearily, "Ax will have the night watch."  
  
"The graveyard shift," I mumbled. Rachel sniggered. Jake glared at me.  
  
"Tobias," he said, "will have the morning. I'll take the first half of the afternoon."  
  
"How do you define 'first half'?" I asked suspiciously.  
  
"Say, twelve to four," he said casually.  
  
"I knew it!" I exclaimed. "You're skipping Algebra! That's not fair!"  
  
"Call it leader's prerogative," he smirked. "Rachel can have the short shift, from four to six. Marco gets to skip Driver's Ed. Then we start over again at Ax."  
  
"Hold on," Rachel said. "If anybody needs Driver's Ed, it's Marco. Jake, you've seen him drive, how can you suggest such a thing?"  
  
"Hey!"  
  
Jake winced. "Ouch. That's right, I'd forgotten."  
  
How can you forget a thing like that? Tobias snorted.  
  
"Doesn't trauma tend to harm the memory? Like, people forget terrifying events because their brain just doesn't want to think about them?" Rachel asked.  
  
"Hey!" I repeated. "If that's true, then . . . where am I? Who are you people? Why am I dressed like a tasteless biker?"  
  
"You are tasteless," Rachel informed me sweetly.  
  
But not a biker. There's no way you're that athletic, said Tobias.  
  
"Back to assigning shifts," I suggested. "Jake, what fascinating thing were you saying before these cruel and heartless people decided to torture me with their acid wit?"  
  
"I could take the Driver's Ed shift," Rachel suggested.  
  
"Oh?" I inquired icily. "The mighty warrior-princess doesn't need the training of mere mortals to learn how to drive the big, heavy machines?"  
  
"No," she replied. "She doesn't. The mighty warrior-princess learned how to drive at her aunt's last summer. The mighty warrior-princess has been bored silly this whole class hearing the merely mortal teacher drone on about things she already knows."  
  
Rachel had taken a trip the past summer for a couple weeks. Fortunately, the irony gods had smiled down upon us and the Yeerks had been quiet. One of the very few lucky breaks we've had since this whole war began.  
  
"Which aunt was that?" Jake asked curiously.  
  
"Jane."  
  
"Oh, the other side of the family."  
  
"Right."  
  
If we're finished reviewing the family tree, Tobias grunted, some of us have sleep to catch up on.   
  
I believe we should return to the issue at hand, Ax assented.  
  
Jake frowned, making a snap decision. "Okay," he said. "Rachel has the evenings. Marco has the late afternoons. Tobias, that means your watch begins now."  
  
Tobias made a short, sharp noise from his branch.  
  
Prince Jake, Ax said, before Tobias had a chance to say anything rude, Tobias is quite tired. I will be happy to take his watch for today.   
  
I could tell Tobias was struggling between pride and exhaustion. This time, exhaustion won out. Thanks, Ax-man.   
  
"And that brings us to the last item of business," said Jake. "If any of us can overlap or spend extra time up here, we should. The more eyes on Cassie, the better. I want this to be a perfectly uneventful three days."  
  
I winced. "Why did you have to say that?" I demanded. "Now you've gone and jinxed us." 


	14. Chapter 14

Chapter Fourteen:  
  
  
  
I left the shack, and just walked alone in the woods for a while. It's not something I get to do often, or even something I want to do very often. I guess I needed to rest a little before morphing wolf, but it was more than that. There was just something soothing about the huge solemnity of the brooding forest. Despite everything around me, I felt amazingly peaceful. Cassie was tied up in a shack, possibly with an alien slug in her head, being watched by a blue horse-boy, while hundreds of kids were signing up to be the slaves of slimy aliens by learning to drive. And I was walking through the woods, enjoying the quiet.  
  
Calm before the storm, I guess.  
  
Eventually, I morphed wolf, and began running through the forest towards the barn. It wasn't a panicked run. Wolves can just lope along for hours in a smooth, controlled motion that gets them where they're going without even thinking about it.  
  
After living or dying by a two-hour clock for a while, you get pretty good at telling how long two hours is. I had been in morph for about an hour and a half when I reached the edge of the woods. I demorphed. I had found the run restful, and easily morphed to osprey.  
  
I was airborne long before I started thinking again. I had been mostly running on autopilot to get out of the forest. Now, I had time to consider the situation we were in.  
  
Nothing had changed. Except we were at least two team members short in whatever insane stunt we decided to try.  
  
There were still over thirty infestation trucks (if that was what they were) driving around. Ironically, I could see over seventeen similar white trucks on the roads beneath me at that moment. Not all of them were Yeerk trucks. But I was willing to lay down odds that at least one was.  
  
The first day of Cassie's three days was already over. Whatever happened for the next two days, Cassie couldn't be involved in any missions, and somebody would need to watch her. That left four of us to do whatever had to be done. I knew Jake was not likely to do anything until we were all sure Cassie was not a Controller. But I had this nervous feeling at the back of my mind, like a piece of something at the back of your mouth that rubs against your palate but you just can't get out. It itched at me, put off-balance.  
  
Well, Marco, I muttered, that doesn't make any sense at all. Cassie could very well be a Controller and there are hundreds of kids getting slugs put in their heads at Driver's Ed. Oh, and each kid with a slug is out to kill you, personally. What do have to be you nervous about?   
  
Talking to yourself again, Marco?   
  
Tobias would have laughed at me for not looking above me every couple seconds. In the air, you can't afford not to have three-sixty vision. Attacks come from above as well as beside and below. I hadn't even seen the bald eagle that hovered maybe twenty feet over me.  
  
Hi, Rachel.   
  
Hi. So, you're nervous?   
  
I considered denying it. But, then, what was the point? I had a right to feel nervous. It was my role as an Animorph to feel nervous. When I was nervous, everybody else felt braver, because I appeared to be the only one scared enough to whine about things. Yup. Sure am.   
  
Do you want help on your watch? Worried that she'll get loose when you're distracted?   
  
It's not that, I said. It's just . . . well, it's just that the whole situation stinks. We've got Yeerks driving around, Cassie and her appointed watchdog out of commission, not enough time and too much to do.   
  
Yeah, mused Rachel. If only we could get all the trucks to park somewhere, then rig the lot to blow. Maybe one of those big, busy truck stops. We could probably steal dynamite from somewhere.   
  
I cocked my head up and to the left to look at her.  
  
It was a joke, she added, after dropping a little altitude.  
  
I wasn't totally convinced of that. There's my house. Gotta dive, I said.  
  
The good thing is, whatever happens, the whole mess will be over in two days.   
  
Yeah, I said. That's the good thing. I folded my wings and dropped like a feathered stone.  
  
The conversation had not alleviated my uneasiness. In fact, the feeling had only intensified.  
  
  
  
I hung out for the rest of the day with my dad. I did some homework, he ran to the store to grab some essentials of life -chocolate, peanut butter, cookies, all the standard necessities. But for the most part we were in the same room, watching TV, talking, laughing. It felt really good. Normal, you know? Normality isn't something I get that often.  
  
My dad and I were laughing over a joke I had just cracked about a news anchorman when I looked at my watch. Three-thirty. I stopped laughing. I would probably be late for my shift by the time I got up to the shack.  
  
"Dad, I gotta go," I said, standing.  
  
He stopped mid-chuckle. "What?"  
  
"I'm going to go out for awhile. Shoot some hoops."  
  
He was puzzled by my sudden change in attitude. "Okay," he faltered. "Want to play one-on-one with the old man?"  
  
I cursed, mentally. How was I supposed to respond to that? "Absolutely," I said. "But I was actually going to challenge this dork who's been bragging all over the court, recently. I am so going to knock him down."  
  
"Hey, great!" he said. "I'll come and watch!" He switched off the TV, and looked around for his shoes.  
  
The thing that really made this hard was that my dad wasn't being a tag- along or a pain. He just wanted to hang out with me. He was being cool about it, and I felt incredibly guilty.  
  
"Dad," I said, "that'd be excellent. But the guy's a total jerk. If you showed up, he'd insist on playing two-on-one against us. I need to prove I can slam him by myself."  
  
He bought it. "Man to man," he said knowingly. "You got it. Well, take mental pictures, because I want a blow-by-blow when you get back."  
  
If my dad had been more difficult about the whole thing, I would have been able to be annoyed with him, and then I wouldn't feel so bad. But he wasn't. He was being the same great guy he always is.  
  
"Yeah," I said. "Sure."  
  
I left the house, and just ran for a few blocks. I wished I were just going to the basketball court. I wanted to play one-on-one with my dad. I wanted to tell my dad the truth. I would have given anything to only be dealing with bragging jerks instead of mind-robbing aliens.  
  
I hoped my pounding heart would pump away my guilt. When and if this war ever ends, I am going to ask my dad's forgiveness for every lie I told him.  
  
I reached the alley, scrambled into a dumpster, and began to morph. 


	15. Chapter 15

Chapter Fifteen:  
  
  
  
"That's really sad," snorted Cassie, dropping her book in disgust. "A page- turner of a mystery novel, the detective's is sidekick missing, Mrs. Wendelworth is in hysterics, the candlesticks with the fingerprints all over them have vanished, and then he ends the chapter with a line like that?"  
  
I looked up. "A line like what?"  
  
She found her place. "He would have to hurry to get to his next appointment. He got in the car and drove away."  
  
"Yeah . . . " I said. "So?"  
  
"So, each chapter should end on a cliffhanger! It should scream at the reader to keep going, to continue the story! This is a sorry excuse for a final sentence to any chapter."  
  
I hadn't realized Cassie even read books that weren't about how to feed an owl vitamin pills, much less mysteries with cliffhanger chapter endings. "Well," I said, "I guess not every chapter can end with a cliffhanger. I mean, some of them have to be mood pieces, right?"  
  
"I guess," she said, obviously unconvinced.  
  
I had arrived almost fifteen minutes late, to Jake's annoyance. He had morphed moodily, and left me alone with Cassie, or the Yeerk that was playing Cassie. There was no way to know which I was dealing with.  
  
The hardest thing about holding somebody who may or may not be a Controller is that you're always trying to trick them into giving themselves away. Then, when they don't, you have this hope that maybe they're not really a Controller. But you also have the cynical part of your brain telling you that they outsmarted you this time. Then you feel disappointed that they didn't give themselves away as a Controller, and guilty that you feel disappointed that they don't seem to be a Controller, and angry with yourself for feeling guilty for something you can't control anyway.  
  
If that made any sense, you should probably take your medication right about now.  
  
I checked my watch for maybe the nine millionth time. Cassie, or the Yeerk in her brain, had closed her eyes and leaned her head back. But she seemed to know, without looking, what I was doing.  
  
"What time is it?" she asked.  
  
"4:56," I said. "Time's ticking down. Not long until your next feeding cycle, huh?" It was a feint. I wasn't at all sure that there was really a Yeerk behind Cassie's eyes. But I couldn't afford to assume there wasn't.  
  
She didn't say anything for a long time. I glanced back down at my math homework. Yeah, Algebra. The work that Jake was having a Chee do for him because of "Leader's Prerogative."  
  
Cheater.  
  
"You really think I'm a Controller," she said. It wasn't a question.  
  
"Does that scare you?" I asked. I couldn't tell whether I was addressing the Yeerk or Cassie. I wasn't sure if I was trying to intimidate a foe or trying to comfort a friend. I just didn't know.  
  
She considered. "No," she said. "It's good that you do. I'm not sure . . . well, we need somebody to be suspicious, Marco. That's the only way we can be safe. If we were all trusting, we'd be dead."  
  
"If we were all like you, you mean," I said.  
  
She rubbed against the chair in thought. Her arms were bound tightly to the arms of the chair, allowing her to read. Also, I guess, allowing her to hold a dracon beam, if it came to that. But we had made sure she wasn't carrying any weapons, and none of us were bringing any up. "I guess so," she said. "Whatever happens, I want you to know I appreciate this."  
  
"What? Our tying you up and treating you like one of the enemy?" I asked, surprised.  
  
"Yes," she said, looking at me like it was the most important thing in the world that she tell me this. "Because we can't do anything unless we all trust each other completely."  
  
I looked at her. She was so eager, so earnest, so completely serious about what she had said. It was so hard for me to believe, right then, that there was a Yeerk behind those eyes.  
  
But I didn't know. Yeerks are actors to put all of Hollywood to shame. It could so easily have been fake.  
  
I didn't know how to answer her. My math suddenly became very interesting to me, and I struggled with a difficult equation. At least in math, there was one right answer. One definite true-or-false situation. No doubt. No second-guessing. No guilt.  
  
"Marco," she said, "I need a few minutes of privacy, outside."  
  
"Huh?" I stared blankly, not understanding. Then it clicked. She had been up here all day and, Controller or not, she still had basic human needs. "Oh. Um . . . have we got a routine worked out for how we handle this?"  
  
"Not really," she confessed. "Ax didn't let me out of his sight."  
  
"Okay," I said, weighing my options. I hardly wanted to watch her for those couple of minutes. Yet, I couldn't allow her to just head out into the woods unobserved, could I?  
  
Yes, I could. I suddenly realized that this was the opportunity I had been looking for. If she left, and five minutes later she still wasn't back, there could be no more doubt. And if she returned, and got back into the chair, and asked me to tie her up . . .  
  
Well, Yeerks act like their hosts, but not to the point of suicide. And refusing an opportunity such as that to escape Kandrona starvation was, in effect, suicide. She would never get another chance like this.  
  
What I was doing was both stupid and dangerous. Jake would kill me. Ax would kill me. Rachel would kill me multiple times, if she could figure out how.  
  
I untied Cassie, and opened the door to the shack.  
  
She stepped through, then looked back at me, puzzled. "You're not coming?"  
  
"No," I said. "Be back in five minutes."  
  
Her eyes widened in shock. She knew what I was doing as well as I did.  
  
Slowly, hesitantly, she turned and walked around the side of the shack, and out of sight. 


	16. Chapter 16

Chapter Sixteen:  
  
  
  
What were the longest five minutes of your life? Waiting for the call back from the person you wanted to go to the prom with? The last five minutes of the line into the movie you had been waiting for since you were ten? The very start of the class where you got your midterm score that made or broke your position on the team?  
  
Okay, let me give you a better sense of the wait. What was the longest day of your life? Because, believe me, that five minutes seemed to stretch for twenty-four hours at least. It was an agonizing eternity.  
  
I stared at my watch. Four minutes had crawled by with all the speed of tectonic plates shifting. She wasn't coming back. I swore. I had unleashed a morph-capable Controller who knew our secret. Even if she didn't morph to bird and fly away, she could spend two hours as an ant. As a mole, tunneling beneath my feet. She could morph dragonfly. She could go flea. She could do anything I could do, and that was a lot. I swore again. I had done the inconceivable. How could I be so-  
  
She came back.  
  
She stepped through the door, and calmly sat down on the chair, and gave me this "Well, aren't you going to tie me back up?" look.  
  
I tried to cover up my shock and relief with a mask of impassivity. I guess I didn't do it fast enough. Cassie started to chuckle.  
  
"Scared you, huh?"  
  
I fumbled for a joke to crack. "I was just . . . amazed you made it back so fast. Because, um, girls tend to . . . "  
  
"So I scared you bad."  
  
"Right."  
  
"Sorry," she said, and shrugged. "Are you gonna tie me back up, or what?"  
  
I eyed her. So. She wasn't a Controller.  
  
"Sure," I said. "Oh, and the other guys really don't need to know about what I just did, right?" I began picking the ropes up. I was surprised to find my fingers were still shaking.  
  
Cassie smiled. "If you bring up a king-sized Snickers bar on your next watch."  
  
I tut-tutted. "What would Rachel say?"  
  
"I figure she really doesn't need to know about it," she said, matching my inflection.  
  
"Blackmail," I said. "You got it."  
  
She wasn't a Controller.  
  
Waves of relief crashed on the shores of my soul. She knew, as well as I did, that she was not going to get another shot at freedom as pure and sweet as that before the end of the three days.  
  
She wasn't a Controller.  
  
No more guilt, no more insinuations, no more trying to catch the Yeerk off- guard. Just plain and simple hanging out with a friend for a few hours, to put the rest of the crowd at ease.  
  
True, the friend was tied to the chair, but still.  
  
She wasn't a Controller.  
  
An hour later, Rachel showed up. She acted all careful around Cassie, tense, shooting suspicious glances towards her.  
  
"Has she done anything suspicious?" she asked.  
  
"Nope," I said, and left it at that. Of all the people I was least interested in having find out about what I had done, Rachel was at the top of the list.  
  
"Hmmm," she said, a dark cloud hovering behind her eyes.  
  
It's funny how perspective changes. I knew the same depression, the same doubt, the same frustration had been raging inside of me just half an hour ago, but now I felt as light as a feather. I was mentally laughing at Rachel for her suspicion. The sudden realization that one of your friends and fellow superheroes is still friend and superhero and not arch-villain tends to take the weight off your shoulders.  
  
"Well," I said, "I'll leave you girls to your hair-and-nail-polish talk."  
  
Cassie made a gagging sound.  
  
Rachel snorted. "Are you kidding? Her? She'll want to tell me all about this new technique she's mastered for mucking out horse stalls. I'd have better luck trying to have an intelligent conversation with Ax about a romantic comedy. Or, for that matter, trying to have any kind of intelligent conversation with you at all."  
  
"Well, get her talking about Jake, then. I'm sure that will be much more interesting." I grinned, getting in the shot while Cassie was tied up. Cassie's not much for violence, but both she and Jake really need to lighten up about their relationship.  
  
Cassie shot me a death-glare, but I saw laughter behind it.  
  
Man, I felt so good right then. Actually, I felt good all night. I felt good for the first half of school the next day.  
  
It was when Erek sat down at lunch with a casual, "Hey, guys! Hear the latest?" that my good mood vanished.  
  
No, we hadn't heard the latest.  
  
I still wish we never had. 


	17. Chapter 17

Chapter Seventeen:  
  
  
  
The nice thing about the school cafeteria is that if you pick your table right, you can talk about whatever you want with no chance of anybody else overhearing you.  
  
"Hey, guys! Hear the latest?"  
  
"I heard you aced another history test," Jake said, smiling.  
  
"It's always been my best subject," Erek chuckled.  
  
Behind the laughter, I could see he was serious, even worried.  
  
"Erek," I said, bluntly, "we don't want to hear the latest, do we?"  
  
"No," he admitted. "You don't."  
  
I had been happy all morning. Now I could feel a certain edginess creep back into the corners of my mind. "'Don't' as in 'not gonna find it interesting,' or as in 'hate you for the rest of our lives for even mentioning this'?"  
  
"The latter."  
  
I stood, hauling my backpack onto my shoulder. "Jake? I think it's time to go to class, don't you?"  
  
Jake grabbed my arm and pulled me back into my chair. "Okay, Erek. Fire away."  
  
"Don't I get a cigarette and a blindfold first?" I asked. My backpack slid to the floor with a thud.  
  
"I've got bad news and worse news," he said. "The bad news is, I figured out where the Yeerks are projecting their holograms from."  
  
"Hang on," I said. "What?"  
  
"Marco, the holograms the trucks project are pretty sophisticated, for the Yeerks," Jake explained. "There's no way that those trucks could be supplying the power for their own holograms. They've got to be beaming the images out from a central projection point."  
  
"How do you know that?"  
  
"Ax told me."  
  
"And you found that point?" I asked Erek.  
  
"I spent last night pinpointing the most likely source. Wherever it is has to be high enough that it can project more or less directly to most of the trucks. And it has to be somewhere near the center of the area where the trucks are located. I had Tobias help me with their general range of movement. Turns out, there's only one place that those trucks could be projected from."  
  
"And the winner is.?" Jake prompted  
  
"The water tower."  
  
"Perfect," I groaned. I remembered the last time we had visited the water tower. The memories weren't good.  
  
There are maybe ten water towers in our immediate area, but we knew which one Erek meant. "The" water tower was the biggest one around, located right by the mall. You've seen the kind I'm talking about. Steel. Painted sky-blue. Four long, heavy legs. A pipe the size of a redwood trunk that runs down into the ground.  
  
"Erek, what kind of holographic projector are we talking about here? Can it be destroyed?"  
  
"By you guys? Sure," he said. "It's just a metal box with a bunch of cables attached, surrounded by cameras and guns."  
  
"Lovely," I grunted. "So the cameras and guns are the worse news."  
  
"Nope. This is still the bad news. We did some preliminary scouting. Currently, all you've got is something about the size of a desktop computer, bolted to the top of the tower. Around that are five machines that look like little satellite dishes, but act a like big dracon beams. I saw them nail a passing bird. Shot it right out of the sky."  
  
"Okay, so the aerial approach is out," said Jake.  
  
"Plus, they've got cameras watching the projector at all times. I couldn't get close enough to trace where the picture is going, but it's safe to say it isn't just mall security."  
  
"So," I said, "we can't take out the projector until we morph something big. And we won't be able to morph on top of the tower until the cameras are destroyed."  
  
"And you won't be able to get to the cameras until the dracon beams are down," Erek said.  
  
"And to destroy the dracon beams, we'll need to morph something big," Jake concluded.  
  
"Another day in the simple, uncomplicated, carefree life of an Animorph!" I chirped.  
  
"Ready for the worse news?" Erek asked.  
  
"No," I said.  
  
"Yes," said Jake.  
  
Of course, Erek listened to Jake. "In one week, the Yeerks will be installing four additional cameras, infrared sensors, a Gleet biofilter, and eight more dracon beams. They will also be expanding the projector itself, approximately tripling its capacity. That means three times as many trucks driving around."  
  
We winced.  
  
"The Yeerks are going to turn every single person who pours through Driver's Ed into a Controller. I ran a few rough, optimistic numbers. If every driving class is thirty people, if there are three classes a day, if a new class starts every week, if there are thirty driving schools around town, if numbers hold constant for three weeks . . . " he said, then paused, and met our eyes. "Remember, these numbers are probably smaller than they should be."  
  
I could tell Jake was trying to work out the math in his head. "How many?" I asked.  
  
"We're looking at eight thousand, one hundred new Controllers within three weeks, Jake. More like ten thousand, to be realistic."  
  
Jake drew his breath in sharply through his teeth. Every high school within miles would be overflowing with dedicated Controllers. Every one of our peers would have a slug locked inside their skull.  
  
"So," I said, casually, trying to swallow the bile that rose in the back of my throat, "I guess we'll be taking that projector out pretty soon."  
  
"Yeah," Jake choked. "Guess we will." 


	18. Chapter 18

Chapter Eighteen:  
  
  
  
Erek looked up, saw something behind us, and made his holographic face smile blandly. He stood, picking up his tray. "I've never seen such a sweet mid-court shot before," he said. "Anyway, it was a great game. I'll get the tape to you soon."  
  
I turned slightly. Our vice principal, Chapman, was walking past. Vice principal is bad enough, but add to that the fact that he's one of the higher-ranking Controllers in our area, and you'll begin to understand why Erek was suddenly talking about basketball.  
  
Jake had glanced behind him as well. "Sure, Erek, thanks." We bused our trays, then shouldered out through the cafeteria doors. Most of the students were still eating, so we had a few seconds of privacy.  
  
"Meeting," Jake announced.  
  
"Of course," I said. "When? Whenever we have it, two people will be missing. Unless we hold it up at the shack."  
  
He paused for a moment, then shrugged. "Ax can miss it. Tobias has plenty of time to fill him in. Call it 10:30, at Cassie's barn."  
  
"Yeah, yeah," I said. "Be there or be square."  
  
"And make sure Rachel knows."  
  
"Will do." I paused, confused. "Jake, I thought your parents got that fancy new security system. Thought you couldn't sneak out at night any more."  
  
"Oh," he chuckled, "that."  
  
"Yes, hah-hah, that. What gives?"  
  
"I had Ax take a look at it last Wednesday. He said it had already been sabotaged. Turns out that it was interfering with the social life of Tom's Yeerk."  
  
"Well," I said. "I guess the irony gods were on our side this time."  
  
The lunch bell rang, and kids started swarming out of the cafeteria. "You and your irony gods," Jake muttered, then stalked off down the hall. Off to watch Cassie for a couple hours. Off to skip algebra.  
  
Leader's prerogative, my foot.  
  
I spent the next two periods mulling over what I knew. Two things, at least, were comforting. One, I was convinced Cassie was not a Controller. Two, Jake probably would not try anything insane while Cassie and her guard- dog were still out of commission. I mean, we did have a week.  
  
Probably.  
  
That's a terrible word.  
  
  
  
I caught up with Rachel after science. We "accidentally" happened to be going down the same hall at the same time. Officially, we barely know each other, and it wouldn't help Rachel's image to be seen talking much with me. That's her story, anyway. I think she's just scared all her jealous little friends will try to kill her when they decide she's going out with me. I mean, who wouldn't?  
  
Oh, but, back to reality.  
  
"Meeting," I muttered to her.  
  
"When?" she coughed, brushing her hair back.  
  
"10:30."  
  
"Tonight?"  
  
I nodded.  
  
"Why?"  
  
I shrugged. "Complicated."  
  
She swerved into her classroom, and I headed for mine. I didn't know what it was, but something was bothering me.  
  
I grabbed my usual seat, in the back corner. Somebody went past me to the bookshelf. Lethargically, I glanced up and saw Cassie flipping through a textbook.  
  
Wait. Cassie?  
  
I started violently, nearly tipping my chair over. "Cassie?" I yipped. A few of my classmates glanced towards us.  
  
"Linda," she hissed. Then, louder, "Oh, hi, Marco."  
  
How dumb could I be? This was the second time I'd forgotten that Cassie could be replaced by a Chee.  
  
"I thought you were on vacation," I announced, for the benefit of the staring class. Well, I had to come up with something fast.  
  
"Me?" she asked, feigning surprise. "Nope."  
  
The class bought it, and cranked the volume on their insults and gossip again, so Linda and I could talk.  
  
"How does Cassie do in this class?" she asked.  
  
"She's good with movements, and understanding motivations," I murmured, "but bad with names and dates. Whatever you do, *don't* know when the French Revolution was. She can never get that down."  
  
"I was beheaded in the French Revolution," she muttered. "It's kind of a vivid memory." She shelved the book, and went back to her seat.  
  
I felt it again. A vague uneasiness. You probably have no idea what I'm talking about. You probably won't until you've been in more than one battle for your life. I've had it over and over.  
  
Typically, I get it when life is flowing pretty smoothly. Typically, it comes before a lot of screaming and bleeding.  
  
It's the unsettling feeling you get when something is about to go terribly, horribly wrong. 


	19. Chapter 19

Chapter Nineteen:  
  
  
  
School finally let out. You've probably already noticed this, but all the clocks in every school building are set to slow down to about a twentieth of normal speed in the last hour. I swear the minute hand didn't budge for at least half an hour in Social Studies.  
  
I swung my locker door open, careful to stem the avalanche of books and papers with one hand. I rooted through the pile of clothes that somehow collected at the bottom, searching for the pizza I was taking up to the shack.  
  
"So'ja hear about Darryl and Jaqi?"  
  
"I know, how awesome is that?"  
  
And, while I was at it, I eavesdropped on the conversation of the girls next to me.  
  
"Yo! Mel! Not you, geek! Melissa Chapman, over here!"  
  
Melissa Chapman, daughter of our pal the vice principal, detached herself from the tide of students and fought her way over to the group. I kept rummaging. I hoped she might provide some helpful information about what her father was up to.  
  
They exchanged greetings like a flock of birds on a telephone wire.  
  
"Melissa, what's up with your dad? He, like, gave me this lecture about listening to music in class?"  
  
"Seriously, whatever!"  
  
"Just doing the job, I guess. Sue, those are great shoes!"  
  
"I know! I got them at the mall! I saw Rachel wearing some and I'm like - 'Oh. My. Gosh.' Aren't they awesome?"  
  
The group agreed that they were, indeed, awesome.  
  
"Hey, speaking of Rachel, where is she? I haven't seen her since, like, two!"  
  
"Probably off being antisocial again! That girl has, like, major problems?"  
  
"Hey," Melissa objected, "she's just a little tense."  
  
"Try a lot tense?"  
  
"Like, mega-tense?"  
  
"Like, 'Friends'-got-moved-for-a-documentary' tense?"  
  
"She's got a lot going on."  
  
"Whatever! All I'm saying is, she hasn't been in, like, any of her classes since two o'clock!"  
  
Wait . . . Rachel was missing? I glanced at my watch. She had been gone for over two hours. I got a sinking feeling in the pit of my stomach. She had gone and done something insane. I knew she had.  
  
"Hey, did you guys here about Rochelle?"  
  
"I know! That's so totally awesome!"  
  
"Kevin's a jerk, there's no way he, like, deserves her?"  
  
"Earth to Megan! Kevin is a hunk!"  
  
"A totally jerky hunk, hello?"  
  
I unclenched my fist, and looked down at the pizza I had been crushing. Maybe I'd pick something up at McDonald's on the way to the shack.  
  
I kicked my locker shut, and drifted out into the current of bodies sweeping towards the doors.  
  
  
  
I got home, and grabbed the phone. My dad wasn't back from work yet, so I could call whomever I wanted without suspicion on my end. I dialed Rachel's number, and waited through the eternity of three rings before someone picked up.  
  
"Hello?"  
  
"Hi, Rachel?" I yelped.  
  
"No, this is Jordan."  
  
Rachel's little sister. "Oh, hi," I said, guardedly. "Is Rachel there?"  
  
"Nope. Who is this?"  
  
"Marco," I said. "Do you know when she'll be back?"  
  
"Oh, hi, Marco!" she twittered.  
  
"Hi."  
  
"How are you?"  
  
"Well, right now I'm looking for Rachel."  
  
"She's not here."  
  
"Right, you said that."  
  
"Oh, yeah. Why are you looking for her?"  
  
"We're . . . um . . . planning a surprise birthday party for Jake," I said.  
  
"But his birthday isn't for months, is it?"  
  
"Well, no," I confessed. "But you've gotta start planning early. When do you expect her back? There's been a problem renting the giant trampoline."  
  
"When do I expect who back?"  
  
"Rachel!"  
  
Maybe I should explain that Jordan recognizes how cute I am. As such, it can be frustrating to try and get information from her.  
  
"Who knows," she said, philosophically. "She doesn't exactly call me with her schedule."  
  
"Okay," I said. This really wasn't improving my mood. Rachel left school early, and her family didn't know where she was. "Thanks."  
  
"Sure. Hey, Marco!"  
  
"Yeah?"  
  
"Jake's family is getting together with ours next Sunday. You should tag along! I mean, as Jake's friend and all," she said slyly.  
  
"Right, yeah, I'll think about it. Gotta go, talk to you later."  
  
"Okay. And I won't tell Jake."  
  
"What?"  
  
"About his surprise party!"  
  
"Oh, yeah, good. Thanks, Jordan."  
  
"No problem."  
  
"Bye." I hung up.  
  
Rachel had disappeared around two. Nobody knew where she was. Logic dictated that she had to be doing something stupid.  
  
Whatever she was doing, I knew I would end up regretting it. 


	20. Chapter 20

Chapter Twenty:  
  
  
  
Marco! We found Rachel.   
  
I stepped out of the shack, and looked up. A peregrine falcon settled onto a tree just outside the door. Jake.  
  
"And?"  
  
I had come to the shack after making sure neither Ax nor Tobias knew where she was. Jake had immediately launched an all-points-bulletin, leaving me with Cassie. Fine by me. It meant I didn't have to be involved in whatever mess Rachel had gotten herself into.  
  
And she's fine. She left school early to go flying.   
  
"What?" I grated.  
  
She said she couldn't stand another minute in school, and had to fly. She couldn't find Tobias, so she just flew out to the next town and back. His voice was a mixture of relief and annoyance.  
  
My voice was the same. But without the relief. "Well! Gee! Glad she didn't scare us, or anything! Glad she didn't just disappear without telling anybody where she was going, or anything! What was she thinking, if anything?"  
  
She was thinking she would fly with Tobias.   
  
I snorted, and stalked back into the shack. I was not exactly happy.  
  
Cassie looked up. She raised her eyebrows at my scowl. "What's wrong with you?"  
  
"The question is, what's wrong with *her*?"  
  
"Rachel?"  
  
"Her. It. That."  
  
"Rachel."  
  
"Yes, Rachel. She just disappeared for two and a half hours with no explanation whatsoever."  
  
An inexplicable expression of shock passed over Cassie's face, then faded away. "Where did she go?" she inquired, mildly.  
  
I watched her curiously. Her reaction had been pretty violent. Well, my reaction was violent, too. I guess I couldn't blame her. "Flying," I grunted.  
  
"With Tobias?"  
  
"Nope. Alone." I didn't want to talk about Rachel anymore. I picked up my book, and dug myself into the story.  
  
"Oh," she said.  
  
I wasn't watching her face when she said it. I didn't see her expression. But I know how she sounded.  
  
She sounded scared.  
  
  
  
Rachel arrived promptly at the end of my watch, with Tobias in tow. My anger had evaporated into relief. After all, she hadn't actually done anything incredibly life-threatening. But that didn't mean I was going to let Rachel off easy.  
  
"Ladies and gentlemen, may I present the marvelous Transforming and Disappearing Girl! She turns into a bird, and then vanishes into thin air, to the amazement of all!"  
  
"I wish *you* would vanish into thin air," she said, closing the door behind her. Tobias was perched on her shoulder.  
  
That would be amazing, said Tobias.  
  
"And marvelous," added Rachel.  
  
"Aw, are Bird-boy and Xena gonna have a guard-duty date?" I sneered.  
  
"Marco," Cassie chided.  
  
"Is Banana-breath gonna get a brain?" Rachel replied, mimicking my tone.  
  
There was a moment's pause.  
  
"What?" I complained to Cassie. "Aren't you going to tell her not to insult me?"  
  
"But I agree with her," Cassie said, sweetly.  
  
"I hadn't known it was Crush Marco's Self-Esteem Week," I frowned.  
  
They declared it Friday. Where were you?   
  
"In school," I said. "Unlike some people, I actually stay in school all day, even when I don't feel like it. Unlike some people, I don't bug out in the middle of the afternoon and scare my friends half to death."  
  
"Aww," Rachel cooed. "He was worried about me."  
  
"No," I corrected, "I was worried about me! Because when you disappear, it usually means that I end up losing at least one limb. The times you've vanished have given me a whole gallery of nightmares I never even imagined."  
  
"He was worried about me!" she repeated. There was an evil, mischievous glint in her eyes. "Isn't that sweet?"  
  
Very sweet, Tobias concurred.  
  
"Adorable," offered Cassie.  
  
I changed tactics. I wasn't going to win that argument. "I'll tell you what's sweet. Coming up and spending the evening with Tobias while babysitting Cassie. Now that's romantic."  
  
"This isn't a date, Marco."  
  
"It looks like a date. It sounds like a date. It feels like a date. Quick, Cassie, what are the words to 'Love is in the Air'?"  
  
Rachel had a bad feeling about tonight, Tobias said. She asked me to help her keep watch.   
  
Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Cassie suddenly stiffen in her chair, as if she had been jabbed in the back. "All evening?" she demanded. Again, there was something strange in her voice.  
  
Something desperate.  
  
Rachel eyed Cassie with an unreadable expression. "Yes."  
  
Cassie swallowed hard. Then she swallowed again, her eyes wide, and slumped back in her chair. All of us saw it. There was no doubt what that expression could mean.  
  
Does that make you uncomfortable, Yeerk?   
  
She wiped sweaty palms on her chair, and smoothed the panic off her face. "I'm . . . I'm not a Controller, Tobias."  
  
But it was useless to protest. There could be no doubt now.  
  
She was a Controller.  
  
Why in the world had she passed up the chance for escape the day before? 


	21. Chapter 21

Chapter Twenty-One:  
  
  
  
I left "Cassie" with Rachel and Tobias, and flew to Driver's Ed. I circled the building, landed in the back. Over the course of the first week, I had established something of a routine for when I flew out here. I dropped to a small groove in the back of the building, about the size of a telephone booth. I rolled the trash cans that were stored there into a fourth wall for my little nook, so that they blocked the view of any weirdo who had nothing better to do than poke around the back of a driving school. I demorphed cautiously, then pulled on the jeans, watch, and t-shirt I kept there.  
  
Hey, when you're as cute as I am, you don't just walk into Driver's Ed wearing bike gear. A guy could get mobbed doing that.  
  
I walked around front, and glanced down at my watch. Driver's Ed wasn't going to start for another fifteen minutes. Fortunately, ballet class had just ended. Most of the girls' moms hadn't come yet. Since I was the only guy around, they flocked to me like paperclips to a magnet.  
  
In other words, I was standing next to the trashcan, and they all wanted to throw away their little Dasani bottles. But, still.  
  
I began talking to this amazing girl called Mary Sue. She was beautiful, intelligent, funny, and seemed to have no character flaws. From what I could tell, she was courageous, gutsy, had a sense of humor as well as excellent taste in clothes, and a love and respect for the environment.  
  
The Chee playing Cassie and Rachel arrived at about the same time. This time I was prepared, and wasn't bewildered by their appearance. It was a little distracting, however. The Chee are excellent actors, and I couldn't tell by looking that they weren't Rachel and Cassie. It was kind of creepy, knowing that the two girls I was looking at were actually miles and miles away.  
  
"Hello, Earth to Marco. I'm talking over here. Anybody home?"  
  
Remind me never to suggest Mary Sue if we decide we need a sixth Animorph. She demanded way too much attention.  
  
Eventually, she gave up on me and returned to her friends. By that time, I couldn't care less. She had been starting to get on my nerves.  
  
As usual, Jake had not yet arrived. I wandered, supposedly at random, over to where the Chee stood talking. "Hey," I said.  
  
"Cassie" - Linda, rather - greeted me with a warm smile. "Rachel" eyed me suspiciously.  
  
"Marco, right? Mark?" she guessed.  
  
"Don't overdo it," I muttered. "I *am* your cousin's best friend. You know my name."  
  
"Right. How are you?"  
  
"Not bad, considering." I reined in a sarcastic comment that would have revealed way more than I wanted anybody knowing yet. I wasn't even planning to tell Ax what I knew before I had talked to Jake. "Linda, Cassie always stays after class to talk to King Kong. Make sure you don't forget."  
  
"King Kong?"  
  
"Mr. Mkonge. The teacher." I had dubbed him King Kong the previous Friday. It was my joke of the week, now. The first ten times I mentioned it, Jake had even smiled. The thirty-eighth time, he swung a couch pillow at me.  
  
What is it they say? Familiarity breeds contempt.  
  
Anyway.  
  
Tom dropped Jake off. His arrival was practically the class bell. He was predictably just one or two minutes early. The Yeerk in Tom's head ran a tight schedule. We, the class consulted our watches, hemmed, hawed, and headed upstairs. One by one, we dropped into our seats for yet another two- hour monotone lecture by his Majesty, King Kong.  
  
I kept glancing over at Linda and the other Chee. They mimicked their motions perfectly, from the way Cassie moved her lips as she took notes to how Rachel looked down and to her right when she twisted her hair behind her ear. I suppose their photographic, holographic, whatever-o-graphic memories allowed them to learn those behaviors fast.  
  
The first forty-five minutes of class lurched past. Break came and ended before we knew it had begun. The second half of the class crept through the room with all the speed of a mourning snail. The test was handed out, and I circled answers practically without looking at them, bored by the simplicity of the class. I glanced over to Linda and her friend. At that moment, Linda tapped her pencil against her nose the exact way Cassie did when trying to make up her mind.  
  
"Nice touch," I murmured. The girl in front of me twisted halfway around, gave me a weird look, and returned to her test.  
  
I stood, and handed mine in. King Kong nodded, and jerked his thumb towards the door. I took his gentle suggestion, and headed out and downstairs.  
  
I had over half an hour to get to Cassie's barn. It would take me maybe ten minutes to fly, and I was in no rush to get there early. Something about the fact that Cassie wouldn't be there unnerved me.  
  
At meetings we decide what our actions will be for whatever suicidal undertaking we're planning. Without Cassie as the voice of reason and boundaries, I was concerned that we might end up doing something we'd really, really regret.  
  
I already really, really regretted a lot of things. I guess I was ready to add one more to the stack. 


	22. Chapter 22

Chapter Twenty-Two:  
  
  
  
"No hard feelings, Linda, but this is a private ceremony," I said, ushering her out of the barn. "Just go along nicely or I'll stub my toe or something. Hurt myself."  
  
She gave me a reproachful look with Cassie's eyes. It was the exact look Cassie would have given me for such a comment. She was very good. I whistled, impressed, and returned to the others.  
  
We were a pretty pathetic bunch, if you ask me. Oh, sure, we weren't as tired as we've been, or as weak, or as desperate. But we were missing two of our team. When you're only six people, that's quite the percentage.  
  
"Marco, would you like to explain about the water tower?" Jake prompted.  
  
"No way," I snorted.  
  
"Fine," he said, and told Tobias and Rachel about the emitter, the current fortifications, and the upgrade that was expected shortly.  
  
"No problem," Rachel said. "We go rip it up. Force is only the way to deal with heavy machinery in the wrong place at the wrong time."  
  
"Yeah, but there's a problem. We've got something of a vicious circle, here. We can't morph or demorph on top of the tower until we destroy some equipment. And we can't destroy any equipment until we morph or demorph."  
  
Why can't we morph, again?   
  
"Cameras," I reminded them.  
  
"Can't we just smash those first?"  
  
"Dracons," Jake supplied.  
  
"Besides," I said, "you won't be able to smash anything as a seagull. You've got to morph firepower first, and you can't."  
  
Rachel set her jaw, annoyed by this. Anything that hampers her rampant violent tendencies annoys Rachel.  
  
We obviously weren't getting anywhere on this topic. "Jake," I said, "did you hear what happened up at the shack?"  
  
His head snapped up. "No. What?"  
  
Jake, we're definitely dealing with a Yeerk up there, Tobias said. No chance she's not infested.   
  
"Did she try and escape?"  
  
Rachel shook her head. "No. But when Tobias and I came in together, she freaked out. Panicked. I think she would have tried something if it had just been me on watch."  
  
"She definitely panicked?"  
  
I nodded, and switched into my chief-of-security mode. "Definitely. Big Jake, we should have double guards around her tomorrow. It's her last day. The slug is gonna get desperate."  
  
"Yeah," Jake agreed. "The Cassie situation ends tomorrow, we've got a whole week to worry about the water tower. I want maximum security on her. Let's mix up shifts and overlap. We want to keep this slug off balance."  
  
"I'll sacrifice my preferences and guard her during Algebra," I intoned, nobly.  
  
Listen to that self-sacrifice. The courage of this man.   
  
"We might as well just get the Chee to replace us all day, Jake," Rachel suggested. "We'll have our hands full. And I wouldn't mind missing school."  
  
"What is it with you and skipping school these days?" I demanded. "I mean, I understand not wanting to be there, but this is just getting abnormal, Rachel. You don't generally drop afternoon classes to go flying."  
  
She bit her lip, shifted her weight uncomfortably. We all looked at her expectantly.  
  
"Spill it," Jake suggested.  
  
"Well," she said, haltingly, "there's this guy who's really been bothering me." She played with a piece of straw. "Hanging around me all the time, just generally getting on my nerves. Last Friday I was this close to just morphing bear in front of him, just to get him to leave me alone. I went flying because I had a biology lab with him at two, and I knew I wasn't going to be able to deal with him through the class."  
  
Tobias bobbed forward on his rafters. He wasn't taking this all that well. Want me to scare him away?   
  
I looked at Jake. Jake looked at me.  
  
"Okay, people," Jake said. "We get the Chee to replace us tomorrow. Rachel?"  
  
"Yeah?"  
  
"Deal. Get control. If you blow our cover because you can't stand some nerd's jokes, I will personally see to it that you're infested first."  
  
"I do stand some nerd's jokes. I deal with Marco all the time."  
  
"But I am not this nerd," I said, affecting a French accent. "I am this funny, witty, amazingly cute Marrrco!"  
  
"Point in case. See how I'm not killing him?"  
  
"I'll contact the Chee," said Jake. "In the meantime, we have got to figure out a way to storm this tower."  
  
"I say forget the tower," I grumbled. "I say, stay home and play Scrabble. Mr. Mkonge is supposed to be in charge of the kids' safety, right? Let King Kong deal with the tower."  
  
Jake stared at my forehead. A slow grin started to appear on his face.  
  
"What. What did I say?"  
  
"You said, 'let King Kong deal with the tower,'" Jake pronounced, slowly.  
  
"Why do I have this sinking feeling in the pit of my stomach right now? Jake, what are you thinking?"  
  
"That's exactly what we're going to do, Marco. King Kong is going to deal with the tower." 


	23. Chapter 23

Chapter Twenty-Three:  
  
  
  
BRRRRRRRRIIIIIIIINGGGGGGGG!!!  
  
BRRRRRRRRIIIIIIIINGGGGGGGG!!!  
  
BRRRRRRRRIIIIIIIINGGGGGGGG!!!  
  
BRRRRRRRRIIIIIIIINGGGGGGGG!!!  
  
I grabbed at the ringing phone wildly, desperate to end the insanely offensive noise.  
  
"Mnhnello?" I gasped, sitting upright in my bed.  
  
"Marco," a voice hissed, "this is Jake. Where the heck are you?"  
  
"I'm . . . um . . . um . . . on my way," I said, dropping back onto my pillow. "Heading up there now."  
  
"You're still in bed," he accused.  
  
I rubbed sleep out my eyes, and blinked, trying to adjust to the harsh sunlight that cut through my window. "Who me? In bed? Have you no faith in your best friend?"  
  
"Not when it comes to this. Get out here, now."  
  
"Forgot to set my alarm," I mumbled.  
  
He hung up.  
  
I looked at the clock. 11:30 AM. I had meant to sleep in, sure, but not this late. I struggled to my feet. Fought off the clinging covers. I shook my head to clear it. Tried to get my bearings.  
  
Right. Cassie. The shack. Water tower. Yeerk. Right. Yeah. Okay.  
  
Still mostly asleep, I put on my morphing outfit and opened my window, shivering at the sudden river of cool air that washed over me. I looked down at my arm, covered in goose pimples.  
  
"How appropriate," I muttered, and began to morph.  
  
  
  
I landed at the shack. Ax was grazing outside.  
  
Hey, Ax-man.   
  
Hello, Marco.   
  
How's it going up here?   
  
Quiet, so far. The Yeerk in Cassie's mind has now given up all pretenses, and was begging for mercy some time ago.   
  
I winced. I wouldn't have liked to be on that watch.  
  
Needless to say, we ignored it.   
  
Needless to say, I agreed. Who's in there now? I jerked my head towards the shack.  
  
Prince Jake. Rachel and Tobias watched the Yeerk for most of the morning, and have now gone to bring human foods for lunch.   
  
I bobbed my head in a bird nod. Guess I should go report for duty. Is Jake pretty steamed up?   
  
I believe he is comfortable, speaking in terms of temperature.   
  
I meant, is he mad that I'm late?   
  
Oh. I'm not sure. When speaking about you earlier, he used several words I am not familiar with. Mainly adjectives. I can look them up in Webster's, if you'd like.   
  
That's okay, Ax-man. I have a pretty good idea what they were.   
  
Irresponsible was the word he used the most. I know what that means. Reckless, careless, foolish, negligent, rash -   
  
Yeah, thanks. Maybe I should go in with battle morph.   
  
Why?   
  
I chose to demorph instead of answer. Fully human, I pulled the door open, and stepped in.  
  
Cassie was slumping in her chair, a defeated, haunted look on her face. Jake leaned against the wall, his arms folded. Impassive. He gave me a look when I entered.  
  
'I'm not going to chew you out now, because it would look bad,' his expression signaled. 'But just wait until I get you alone.'  
  
Cassie, or rather, the Yeerk controlling her, brought her head up to regard me. "Marco," she said. "Marco, Marco, Marco. Poor Marco's mom is a Controller. Visser One, no less! Lofty connections. Think you could get me a promotion if I survive? Ask your mommy nicely for me?"  
  
I was disgusted, but I wasn't about to let the Yeerk know that. I put my hands on my hips, and regarded it.  
  
"Not much time left, huh, Yeerk?"  
  
"No," it agreed. "Not much. Do you so-called Andalite bandits enjoy doing this? Murdering people? That's what you're doing, you know. It's not a quick, merciful death, either. It's murder. Slow torture. Slooooooooooow."  
  
"Come out of Cassie, and we'll make the end fast," Jake offered.  
  
"I wouldn't give you the satisfaction," it snarled, curling Cassie's lip in a sneer. It was so dramatically un-Cassie. How could we ever have been fooled by it? How could I have been fooled?  
  
I knew how.  
  
"You brought this on yourself," I frowned. "You had the chance to escape."  
  
Jake looked at me sharply. I gave him an 'I'll-explain-later' glance.  
  
"Why didn't you leave when you could?"  
  
The Yeerk stared at me through Cassie's face, her eyes bulging. It turned her lips up in a terrible smile, and began to snicker. The laugh turned into a cackle, which turned into a howl of hilarity. The Yeerk was going mad at the end of its life.  
  
It laughed. It vibrated Cassie's vocal cords, worked her jaw, threw back her head and laughed in my face as though I had just asked the most hysterically funny question ever.  
  
It ran out of breath, and gasped raggedly. "Why, he asks why," it gagged.  
  
"Yes," Jake said. "He does. Answer him."  
  
It looked left, then right, suspiciously, then leaned Cassie's body forward. It smiled with her mouth. "Because," it whispered, "I didn't - "  
  
She was interrupted by the shrill scream of a hawk outside. Jake! Tobias shouted. We have an emergency! Rachel is in squirrel morph on top of the water tower, with an hour and a half left before . . . Jake, she's pinned down by dracon cannons, and can't get away!! 


	24. Chapter 24

Chapter Twenty-Four:  
  
  
  
"Tobias!" Jake yelled. "I can't do anything until you calm down and tell me what's happening. Calm down!"  
  
Ever since he had arrived, Tobias had been babbling more or less incoherently.  
  
With an arm that would have made any defense player proud, Jake reached up and slapped the hysterical bird as he flew in circles around the shack.  
  
Tobias spilled air, and landed gracelessly in the dirt. Rachel! he gasped.  
  
"Yes, Rachel," agreed Jake. "Tell us what's happening. Don't fly! Just sit there and tell us what happened!"  
  
Tobias struggled to right himself. I could see his chest heaving, and he opened and closed his wings in agitation. Rachel. She said we should scout out the water tower beforehand. Check the layout. She said squirrel was the perfect morph to do it in, since it wouldn't attract the attention of the dracon beams. How could I have let her do that, Jake? How the heck could I have let her do that? WHAT KIND OF A BIRD AM I? he demanded, outraged.  
  
A bird that needs to lower his cardiovascular pressure and tell his Prince what the situation is so that an action plan can be made to solve the problem at hand, Ax supplied.  
  
Miraculously, it seemed to do the trick. Tobias slowed his breathing. Stopped flapping wildly. Stopped shrieking.  
  
"So she climbed the tower, Tobias?"  
  
Yeah, he said, shakily. Yeah. But the dracon beams did lock onto her. She's in a nook where she's out of sensor range, but she can't morph and she can't get out. And she's only got . . .   
  
One hour and twenty-five minutes.   
  
An hour and twenty-five minutes left in morph!   
  
"Okay," Jake said. "Marco, we're rushing Operation: Kong."  
  
"How?" I countered. "We don't have an Ann Darrow."  
  
"Yes, we do."  
  
"Who?"  
  
"Cassie."  
  
"Are you insane? She's a Controller!"  
  
"Not a whole lot of options, here, Marco."  
  
Question.   
  
"Yeah, Ax?"  
  
Who is Ann Darrow?   
  
"After this is over, we'll sit you down with King Kong, the movie. For now, we have to swing into action," Jake said. "Suffice it to say, Cassie's got Rachel's job."  
  
Ah.   
  
"Um, problem," I frowned.  
  
"Just what we need."  
  
"How are we going to get Cassie to the water tower?"  
  
Jake considered, then wrenched the door open. He stormed over to where Cassie sat, and grabbed her by the collar. Then he hauled her, chair and all, up in the air to his eye level. "Listen up, Yeerk," he grated. "Morph mouse *now*. This is not a negotiation."  
  
Cassie's eyes widened, and her head nodded. The Yeerk was scared. I would have been intimidated by that, too.  
  
"Marco, wolf. Now."  
  
The Yeerk and I both raced into morph. It was done well before I was, but Jake had a firm grip on the mouse. As soon as I was fully wolf, Jake shoved Cassie into my mouth.  
  
"Carry her," he said. "And don't kill her unless she tries anything."  
  
I was impressed. I'm sure Cassie disapproved, but I could feel the mouse in my mouth shaking. Jake's plan was working.  
  
"Move out," he barked. We stumbled out into the blazing afternoon sun. Ax had already morphed. Jake went peregrine falcon.  
  
As soon as he had thoughtspeak, he flapped up into the air. Ax. How long does Rachel have in morph?   
  
Approximately one hour and twenty minutes.   
  
Half an hour to get to the tower, I calculated. Half an hour to put the plan into effect. Twenty minutes to rescue Rachel.   
  
Let's fly, Jake ordered.  
  
An hour and twenty minutes to save the world, Tobias muttered, darkly. 


	25. Chapter 25

Chapter Twenty-Five:  
  
  
  
"Huh-huh-HUH-HUH-HURRRRRRRROAAAAAAWWAARRRR!!!"  
  
With one black-furred fist, I obliterated the door to the changing room.  
  
"HUUUURRRRRRRRRAAAAAAAAAAWWWWWWWEEERRRR!!!"  
  
With the same fist, I lifted an entire clearance rack into the air and slung it into a display of shoes. I beat my chest, screaming like the primal beast I was supposed to be.  
  
"HHHHRRRRRRROOOAAAAAAAWWWERRRR!!!"  
  
You know, gorillas are naturally pretty gentle creatures. They like to eat. Sleep. Don't make much of a fuss.  
  
"HUH-HUH-HHHHHHHRRRRRROOOAAAAAAAAAAWWWWRRRR!!!"  
  
In case you didn't know, I'm not your natural gorilla.  
  
I tore out of the store, one heavy, hairy arm clenching Cassie's body to mine. With the other, I was doing as much showy damage as possible.  
  
Front display window? Gone. Movie poster? Obliterated. Mall directory? What mall directory? Oh, you mean the pile of rubble behind the monkey?  
  
I barreled through the mall. It wasn't that crowded, since school was still in session. Mostly old folks, young couples, toddlers, and dropouts. It was enough.  
  
"Help!"  
  
"What is that thing?"  
  
"It's a monkey, Mommy!"  
  
"It is not, Trevor! It's a gorilla! Tell him it's a gorilla, Mom!"  
  
"It's carrying a girl!"  
  
"It's going to eat her!"  
  
"HHHHRRRRRRROOOOOOAAAWWWWERRRR!!" I screamed, wrenching my vocal chords in bestial fury. I swung myself over the railing, and onto one of the modern art sculptures that ran from floor to ceiling in the bi- level mall. Bellowing all the way, I slid down and hit the ground hard.  
  
"Oh, wow! Cool!"  
  
"Did you see that thing move?"  
  
"Call the police!"  
  
"Call 9-1-1!"  
  
"Call the National Guard!"  
  
Yeah, call them all. Mr. Monkey is in the house.  
  
Mall security came out. They stood in front of me as if they thought their presence would intimidate me.  
  
Yeah, right. Bye, bye, hope your head doesn't hurt too much when you wake up.  
  
Left! Right! Left! Left! Through the display. Over the stand. Try not to run anybody over unless they're directly in my way.  
  
I went through the doors of the mall. Not out of them, but through them. The more drama, the better. The flying glass sang and hit the streets. My leather feet didn't even feel it. I bellowed again. Behind me, the inhabitants of the mall streamed out, gasping, pointing and shrieking. Perfect.  
  
I hit the parking lot running. I leapt onto a car, and ran from Ford to Honda to Chevy to Toyota, swinging my monster-sized body in a berserk rampage. I was the gorilla. I was loose.  
  
"HHHHRRRRRRROOOAAAAAAAWWWERRRR!!!"  
  
That's when I heard the first of the sirens. I saw three police squad cars pull up. In the distance, I thought I could hear the wail of fire trucks.  
  
Yeah, bring 'em on.  
  
The Yeerk used Cassie's teeth to bite me, Cassie's feet and hands to kick and hit me. The gorilla didn't even feel it. It was used to dealing with enemies far worse than humans. With one hand, careful not to crush her, I kept her face buried in the thick, glossy fur on my shoulder. We wanted publicity for this stunt. News cameras would keep us alive. But the last thing we needed was for some newsperson to ID Cassie as the kidnapped girl.  
  
Ax! I panted as I bounced up off the leather seat of a Ferrari, How much more time does Rachel have?   
  
Twenty-three minutes, he supplied.  
  
Okay, I said. Let's make this real.   
  
I reached the water tower. I tightened my grip on Cassie's writhing body, and reached up the other arm. I closed it around the cold steel of the ladder that led to the top of the water tower.  
  
I began to climb.  
  
King Kong was in town. 


	26. Chapter 26

Chapter Twenty-Six:  
  
  
  
Hey Rachel! I called, swinging my heavy body up the ladder as a crowd grew at my feet. Ready to be on TV? This is your big break!   
  
Marco? her voice demanded, incredulous. Is that you?   
  
How many other gorillas do you know who would bust up a mall and climb a water tower?   
  
You had just better have left that clearance sale alone. I've got my eye on a pair of shoes.   
  
Roar, Marco, said Tobias.  
  
I roared.  
  
"Huh-huh-HUH-HHHHRRRRRRRROOOAAAWWWEEERRRRRR!!!"  
  
The crowd below gasped collectively. It was very satisfying. Remind me to hire you to direct all my films, I puffed.  
  
Okay, Tobias said. We've got one, two . . . four news vans pulling up. Everything's good thus far.   
  
You would have to go and jinx it, I muttered. I felt Cassie begin to morph beneath me. I tightened my grip to where I knew she could no longer breathe. Morph back, or you die.   
  
The Yeerk morphed back. All the while, I kept climbing. All the while, the crowd kept gathering.  
  
Our plan was as brilliant and as stupid as the majority of Jake's plans. Gorilla was the only battle morph that could climb up the tower to wreak havoc. If there were news vans surrounding the tower, no dracon beam could shoot me down. There would be questions asked that the Yeerks didn't want to have to answer. My hostage was just double security. People might not have a problem with a wild ape mysteriously being shot. For the girl to get shot would have caused deep and probing public scrutiny.  
  
So our mission depended on attracting as much attention as possible. On doing as much damage as possible. On publicly destroying Yeerk property. And Rachel was on the sidelines.  
  
Just goes to show that the irony gods do grant wishes sometimes.  
  
Now, Tobias said, cue the Ax-man.   
  
Fifty feet down, a teenager in a bright circus costume had gotten hold of a megaphone, and was now being pushed to the front of the crowd.  
  
"Remain calm!" Ax shouted. "Everybody remain calm! I am the primate's trainer! I am a professional Earth animal handler!"  
  
The crowd turned to Ax, ready to make him their new hero.  
  
This had been my idea - the media would eat up a publicity stunt like this.  
  
"BoBo!" Ax shouted through the megaphone. "Come down, BoBo!"  
  
I paused dramatically, reeling and glaring down at him.  
  
"Do you hear me? Obey me this instant! Come, BoBo!"  
  
The crowd began chanting.  
  
"BoBo! BoBo! BoBo! BoBo! BoBo! BoBo! BoBo!"  
  
Ax fought to make himself heard over the deafening roar of the crowd. "BoBo! Do you hear me? Come down here!"  
  
That's good, Tobias announced. Jake says to keep going.   
  
Climbing one-handed, with breaks for "BoBo-ing," dramatic roaring, and dealing with the infested Cassie, it took me a full ten minutes to scale the tower.  
  
Finally, I mounted the top. I felt insane vertigo for a moment. I was ridiculously high, with no guardrail, and guns and cameras all pointed at my head.  
  
Then the ape took over. I found my footing. Heights were no problem for Mr. Monkey.  
  
I looked down at the gathering crowd. Five fire trucks had arrived, and the firemen were screwing their hoses to hydrants. Don't ask me why. I guess it's standard procedure or something. News vans sprawled across the parking lot, people milled around like frightened ants. Police cars were cordoning off various areas, for no discernable reason that I could see. It was a satisfying scene.  
  
I screamed again, and beat my chest dramatically. Then I looked away from the crowd. I looked into the cold eye of a camera. Down the gullet of a dracon beam.  
  
The party began.  
  
WHAM!  
  
CRUNCH!  
  
A camera went sailing. Electronic equipment sent off dying sparks as I ground it into so much plastic and copper beneath my feet.  
  
CREEEAAAK!  
  
I twisted the neck of a camera, then smashed it hard and smiled as it shattered on the steel top of the water tower.  
  
I looked around, surveying my work.  
  
Tobias, try now! I ordered. Tobias swooped past. Three machines swiveled, tracking him. I made sure they never moved again.  
  
That should be it. Rachel, demorph!   
  
In five minutes, I had laid waste to the guns and cameras around the top of the water tower. In a corner, I could see a half-squirrel, half-Rachel thing twisting and mutating, growing slowly. In my arms, Cassie had begun jerking wildly. Momentarily safe from the cameras, I held her out in concern.  
  
"Marco, it's . . . no! You can't! This is murder! Die, die! . . . Marco, don't . . . years of training for nothing . . . the pool! The Kandrona! Marco, the . . . " her face contorted and her body twitched as she and the Yeerk struggled for control. The slug was dying. Within moments, Cassie would be free of her slave master.  
  
Rachel put her hand on my shoulder, peering down at Cassie in concern. "Is she . . . ?"  
  
It's dying, I said, tersely. Let's wreck the projector and get this over with.   
  
Rachel nodded, and began morphing bear.  
  
I squinted, searching for the projector. In the corner of my mind I heard a dull sound.  
  
Thwop-thwop-thwop-thwop-thwop-thwop.  
  
We've got news helicopters coming in, Tobias reported. Morph whatever you want, but get the heck out of sight.   
  
Tobias, Rachel asked, just how long do we have?   
  
One minute. Maybe.   
  
Cassie screamed. Or the Yeerk screamed through her. Then she grew very still, and I saw small movement by her ear. I reached down, and plucked the slug from her ear.  
  
I don't know if I shortened its life any. I hope so.  
  
Instantly, Cassie was on her feet. "Marco!" she shouted.  
  
Not now! I ordered. Morph osprey. Do it now, Cassie!   
  
"Marco, listen to me!"  
  
No, Cassie, you listen. In seconds, this place will be swarming with news helicopters. You *cannot* be human when that happens. Morph now, or I throw you off the tower and you morph on the way down.   
  
"But - "  
  
MORPH! I bellowed, clamping one huge, hairy hand down over her mouth.  
  
She morphed. I've never seen her morph so fast in her life.  
  
As soon as she was almost entirely bird, I swung her around and threw her into the air. I glanced at Rachel, who was now all bear. Fly, Cassie, we've got it covered up here!   
  
She dove in a quick loop. Marco, she gasped, Rachel is a Controller, too! 


	27. Chapter 27

Chapter Twenty-Seven:  
  
  
  
The bear that was Rachel eyed me. I swear she smiled.  
  
The blades on the news helicopters grew louder. Any moment now, they were going to capture a million images of a bear where no bear could have possibly gotten.  
  
Would they capture the bear's smile?  
  
What were really you doing during that little flying trip of yours?   
  
Feeding at the Pool, of course.   
  
Why didn't you report us?   
  
I will, she said. But not hastily or sloppily. I'm going to deliver all of you, already infested, to Visser Three!   
  
The news helicopters grew louder.  
  
Marco, Rachel, Tobias called, obviously unaware of the deadly situation on top of the tower. Cassie's safely away. Rachel, you've got to find a way to hide. If they see you in bear morph, it's all over.   
  
"Rachel" and I waited, eyeing each other. Daring one another to make the first move. Finally, she spoke.  
  
Neither of us wants for the human media to see this. Not yet, she sneered. Can we agree to hide for the time being? I don't want to kill you.   
  
Not yet, I agreed.  
  
The news helicopters grew louder.  
  
I loped cautiously to the hatch that let down into the water of the tower. Standing next to it was a low, ugly box. Wires dangled from it, lights flashed on it. "Rachel" lumbered over. She followed my line of sight.  
  
It was weirdly quiet on top of the tower.  
  
Yes, she said. That's the projector. Will you destroy it, and die when we Yeerks send our troops to pick you up? Or hide in the water, like a coward, and perhaps come back to destroy it another day?   
  
Grudgingly, I wrenched open the hatch.  
  
In, I ordered.  
  
Oh, after you, she sneered.  
  
No, I insist.   
  
Every word of mock politeness was another dagger of hate thrust in one another. We both knew exactly what we were doing, and how dangerous it was.  
  
If you do not go first, I will not go at all. I have nothing to lose by fighting to the death here, she said. What about you?   
  
My dad. My friends. Earth. Yeah, I had something to lose.  
  
What are you doing, you idiots? Tobias demanded. The choppers are right on top of you! Get in the water, now!   
  
I dropped down, in a careful, loping plunge, keeping one hand on the hatch in case she tried to lock me in.  
  
She didn't. The water rocked as she dove in.  
  
She resurfaced, and I took stock of my situation. I was in a cold water tower with, I realized, no way of getting out except to morph eel and swim out, or seagull and fly out. It was dark in the tower, except for the lone shaft of light that sunk through the hatch, illuminating a small circle of the water. Across from me, paddling lethargically, was the Yeerk that controlled Rachel's body. The bear's body.  
  
I had been in morph for about half an hour.  
  
Rachel had just morphed.  
  
Half an hour after I was forced to choose between demorphing and life as a gorilla, Rachel would still be the bear.  
  
I might be able to fight her off as gorilla.  
  
As a human, I would die within seconds.  
  
So, I said. You're why Cassie didn't run away when she had the chance.   
  
I promised I would take her feeding during my watch. But I changed my mind. She twisted her bear head up, as if looking at something above us. Too bad, huh?   
  
You killed your own comrade.   
  
I have a guiding principle. Never share glory. I want it to be my moment alone when you six are presented to Visser Three.   
  
The water was cold, but that had nothing to do with the chill that went up my spine. For a half hour, once I had been forced to demorph, I would be in the paws of a bear with a Yeerk behind its eyes.  
  
A Yeerk that had killed its own ally.  
  
I was already a dead man. 


	28. Chapter 28

Chapter Twenty-Eight:  
  
  
  
I began counting down the minutes until I had to demorph. Meanwhile, I treaded water, looked into the smiling eyes of the bear, and listened to Tobias.  
  
Marco, this is beautiful. We've got the fire department, the police department, and every civilian within miles down there. I think they let school out, because we have a zillion kids running around. Ax "gave up" on you, and slipped away. Jake's down there, just in case. How are you and Rachel holding up?   
  
Rachel is a Controller, I said flatly.  
  
There were a few minutes of silence.  
  
Yeerk, you had better already be dead when you crawl out of her ear. Because, so help me, if I ever get my talons on you, I'll rip - He cut himself off mid-sentence. Then, slowly, shakily, his narration resumed. Okay, Marco. One of the fire trucks is extending its ladder and running a hose up. I think their idea is to squirt you off the tower. The news helicopters are circling like vultures out here. Whoa! Wait a minute. What's that?   
  
I waited. Shivering in the cold water, staring into the eyes that had once been owned by Rachel.  
  
Marco, man, the National Guard is here! They just pulled up! Oh, man, they've got bazookas and everything. Hey, wait, one of them is going up to talk to the police guy. They're arguing! I don't know what about. This is insane!   
  
That's my line, I grumbled, swimming in a tight circle opposite "Rachel."  
  
Okay, it looks like the policeman won for now. The National Guard is backing off. Jake is following them. Dude, they're loading weapons! What do you think you're going to do with that, pal?   
  
I listened. My gorilla teeth began to chatter as I fought to stay above the surface. The bear floated, and waited. I didn't know whether Tobias was letting her in on his thoughtspeech or not.  
  
Whoah. Marco, we're dealing with bazookas and submachine guns being loaded up out here. How are you?   
  
I grimaced as my shoulder slammed painfully into the wall. Fine. What else do you see?   
  
There's some kind of heavy-duty machinery being rolled in. I'm not sure what it is. Jake could tell you.   
  
I shut Tobias out for a moment.  
  
So, I said to the Yeerk, how did you get that body?   
  
Cassie's Yeerk helped me, she purred. But we agreed that we wouldn't report your existence until all of you were ours.   
  
That will never happen, I promised.  
  
We'll see.   
  
Tobias's voice cut into my mind. This crowd is huge, Marco! We've got hundreds and hundreds of people! The news helicopters are circling. Some reporter is talking about the destruction on top of the tower. They figure that you're inside with Cassie. They're going to send up a squad to get you out of there as soon as they can get the equipment! With the traffic, we're guessing ten, twenty minutes.   
  
It would have been smarter to report us to the Visser, I told the Yeerk.  
  
Perhaps when I leave here, that's what I'll do. Then you can explain to all your little friends that it was you who suggested I not waste time.   
  
I snorted. You're not getting out of here, Yeerk.   
  
Marco, have you forgotten that I inhabit Rachel's mind? That I was at all your councils of war? I know the plan. Destroy the projector. Jump in the water. Morph eel. Swim out. Perfectly simple.   
  
I gambled that she had not counted my minutes in morph. I'll kill you as soon as you start to demorph.   
  
But that will be a half hour after you have to return to human form, she purred.  
  
You lose, sometimes, when you gamble.  
  
That National Guard guy is arguing with the police chief again. Marco, I'm pretty sure that one of these two is a Controller. The chief wants to use force. Kill the gorilla and the hostage, if necessary. The Guard wants to see if he can sedate you. Knock both of you out; airlift you to the zoo and your hostage to her home.   
  
Except that I was the hostage, now. The world just didn't know it.  
  
They're arguing pretty hard down there, Marco. Hey! What are you doing!? Suddenly, his tone became panicked.  
  
What's happening? the Yeerk demanded.  
  
The policeman pulled a gun on the Guard. Is he insane? This is the National Guard! He can't . . .   
  
He became suddenly silent. From the open hatch, I heard a faint, distorted sound, eerily twisted beyond recognition by the height and water. I guessed it was the sound of the crowd screaming.  
  
All hell just broke loose out here. 


	29. Chapter 29

Chapter Twenty-Nine:  
  
  
  
The policeman just shot the National Guard. It's insane! We've got total wild chaos out here!   
  
Tobias! I shouted. The projector wasn't destroyed! If you ever want to do anything about it, now is probably the time!   
  
Yeah, okay, he grunted. It was obvious he was fighting to keep himself together in whatever nightmare was rampant outside.  
  
I heard a single drop of water slip from the hatch. I heard gentle sloshing as the Yeerk and I treaded water. All was stillness and peace inside our pool. The small circle of light on the water was the hub of the wheel we two formed as we slowly circled one another.  
  
It was silent. Aside from the thin noise of the crowd, like a ghost's wail, that trickled through the hatch. Aside from the rippling water and the scrabbling of Rachel's claws as she bumped into the wall.  
  
Okay, said Tobias. Okay. Okay. Okay, we're gonna do this. Yeah. Marco, Yeerk, I don't care what you're up to. I don't care if you have your jaws locked around each other's throats. If either of you want to live, morph eel. And I do mean now.   
  
What's going on? I cried.  
  
Jake's going to take out the tower.   
  
How?   
  
You'd better be demorphing while you're talking, monkey boy.   
  
I glared across the shaft of light, across the wheel. Into the face of the bear. Its eyes were no longer smiling.  
  
Are you still more interested in living than in ending my life, Yeerk?   
  
I am willing to kill myself in order to end the threat of the so- called "Andalite bandits," she said.  
  
Sure you are.   
  
She was lying. We both knew it.  
  
After a moment of hesitation, she added, Your body is too valuable to lose. So, no, I won't kill you.   
  
I'm going to start to demorph, Yeerk, I said. She wouldn't kill me. Would she? I'm going to start to demorph. You'd better do so too, Yeerk. You inhabit Rachel's mind. You know that Tobias's voice doesn't shake when he bluffs.   
  
She swam. I swam. The wheel turned. Then I stopped swimming.  
  
I began to demorph, slowly. The eyes of the bear watched me. Took in every detail of my change. And then she started to change, too.  
  
The fur shot into my body, leaving me cold in the water.  
  
Giant, hairy fingers emerged from her paws.  
  
My skull ground and shifted, changing shape.  
  
She thinned, until she was a pathetic shadow of a bear.  
  
My feet twisted and became human.  
  
Her snout changed, flattened, transformed into her real face.  
  
My gorilla senses dimmed and sharpened, turning me back into a mere mortal.  
  
Her leotard faded into sight, and her hair unfurled over her head.  
  
My outfit appeared at the same time, just as my muscles relaxed and thinned to humanity.  
  
The Yeerk that controlled Rachel floated in the water for a moment. She was completely Rachel, but she was still bear-sized. Over nine feet tall. She was a giantess. She looked down at herself, and her huge face smiled.  
  
"Fee, fi, fo, fum," she boomed. Her voice was deeper than a man's, resounding unnaturally in her huge chest cavity.  
  
Then she shrunk, and was just Rachel.  
  
Rachel and the Yeerk.  
  
Booooooooom.  
  
Suddenly, my skin buzzed. The water was vibrating. The steel around me echoed, resounded, groaned painfully.  
  
Something had hit the tower. Something big.  
  
The water in the tower shifted in the impact. It sloshed heavily against one wall. I was thrown next to Rachel. I looked down, and could see the bottom of the tank on the other side. For a split second, the water had all rushed away from the side that had been struck.  
  
Then it started to move back for the other side.  
  
Somewhere, on a deeper level than all the other sounds I had heard yet, as if the tower itself was speaking to us, I heard a rumbling groan, and then a shriek.  
  
Sssccchhhreeee.  
  
Something was shifting. Something was breaking.  
  
Ssssssccchhhrrrrreeeeee.  
  
Something vital.  
  
I didn't know what was happening. But I knew that, whatever happened, I had no chance of coming out alive.  
  
Ssssssssscccccccchhhhhhrrrrrreeeeeeee.  
  
I began to morph. Faster than I have ever morphed in my life. I was going eel.  
  
But it wasn't going to save me.  
  
Sssssscsssccccccchhhhhhhhhrrrrrrreeeeeeeeeeeee. 


	30. Chapter 30

Chapter Thirty:  
  
  
  
I was fully eel when I first felt the suction. Something had changed in the water. Instead of a controlled, gentle tug, I began to feel a desperate strain in the current. It wasn't pulling me. It was yanking. Clawing. Hauling.  
  
The water was moving faster and harder.  
  
Tobias! I gasped, passing water over my gills and searching with my dim senses for Rachel. What happened?   
  
The National Guards had their weapons loaded. Jake . . . he grabbed a bazooka. He just grabbed it right out of the hands of one of the guards. Fired it into one of the legs of the tower.   
  
The tower was made up of a main pipe that ran into a vast steel tank. The only thing holding the tank in the air was the pipe and the four legs of the tower.  
  
Three legs, now.  
  
Ssssssssccccccccccchhhhhhhhrrrrrrrrrrrreeeeeeeeeeeee.  
  
I knew what the sound was. It was metal bending. Crumpling. Breaking.  
  
It was the tower beginning to fall.  
  
WHHHHHHOOOOOOOOOOSSSSSSSHHHHHHHHH!!!  
  
The pull in the water had ceased to exist. It was all pull, now. The water was nothing but current. It was all fall. Every drop of water in the tower was coursing down the pipe. The tower was breaking, dying. The water was being freed.  
  
Funny how I pictured it in that moment. Freed.  
  
I became aware of a presence next to me. I couldn't see them in the furious water, but I knew. Rachel and the Yeerk were there.  
  
In that moment, of all things to think about, my mind ranged to a character from an old book. Captain Nemo. Why was I thinking about Captain Nemo? It was strange, how silent everything was beneath that rushing water.  
  
Silently we were carried, in a headlong rush we could not stop, down towards what could only be our death.  
  
Some corner of my mind noticed that by a trick of the water, the eel that was Rachel and the eel that was myself were spiraling down around each other. We were still circling one another.  
  
We will be separated, the Yeerk laughed. I will emerge at one pipe, you will emerge at another. We will crawl out of our respective drains and demorph. And then you will be captured.   
  
I didn't respond. I didn't want to give the Yeerk the satisfaction of eliciting a reply.  
  
Or maybe I knew it was right.  
  
WWWWHHHHHOOOOOOSSSSSSSHHHHHHHH!!!  
  
The water sped up. I could feel the pipe rushing past faster past me.  
  
I began to scream. The noise came from the place between fear, exhilaration, and despair.  
  
Down. Straight down. Faster. Faster! Our speed seemed insane, beyond anything a human could experience without blacking out. We seemed to fall forever, in our tiny, frail eel bodies.  
  
Darkness had swallowed us. All was now silence and speed. Except for our cries. Except for the noise that was ripped out of our souls as we were pushed to the edge.  
  
Jake says to get out! called Tobias, obviously addressing the whole team. Cassie, Ax, move! Get clear of the mob!   
  
So the crowd had become a mob.  
  
We coursed down, silently.  
  
"The sea does not belong to despots," I murmured.  
  
What? panted the Yeerk.  
  
"Thirty feet below its level, their reign ceases, their influence is quenched, and their power disappears."   
  
What?   
  
WWWWHHHHHHHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOSSSHHHH!!  
  
Our path had suddenly twisted. Left, right, left, up. Up. Up. Up! Up, up, up!  
  
A sound like the loudest thunder deafened me, and I was utterly blinded by startling, terrifying light. All around me! My eel body felt strange. Dry. The wind was screaming past me.  
  
Wait, the wind?  
  
I was in the air!  
  
Tobias! I called. Tobias, do you see two very sorry eels trying to grow wings?   
  
Marco?   
  
Tobias, I have no clue how, but Rachel and I are so totally in the air! We're talking ninety feet up, here! Think we could get some help, Bird-boy?   
  
I could feel myself slowing. Soon I would begin to drop.  
  
Why in the world was I in the air? I couldn't see a thing. What had happened?  
  
I began to drop. I was going to die. I was going to hit the ground, and my soft body would . . .  
  
I felt talons close around me, constricting my slippery body. My momentum was arrested, and I felt a jerk as Tobias's wings pumped as he fought for altitude.  
  
One and . . . two! Yes! I *am* the original Air Force pilot! He dives, he scores! All bow!   
  
I was safe.  
  
Rachel was safe.  
  
The Yeerk was exposed.  
  
No! No! Nooooo! it screamed. Stupid of me. Stupid! Why didn't I report them all? I could have! I could have been a Visser! I should have, it should be mine! Why? So stupid!   
  
It knew it was trapped, now. It knew it would die.  
  
Yeah, I agreed. You're stupid. Hey, Tobias!   
  
Yeah?   
  
Why am I in the air?   
  
You shot out of a fire hose, man! Like a bullet from a gun!   
  
Is the projector . . .   
  
Marco, the projector is gone. So gone. Utterly, completely, totally obliterated. And so, while we're on the subject, is the water tower.   
  
I realized then that I was not in the water, and my gills were not taking in oxygen. Good, I gasped. Now, would the original Air Force pilot drop us off somewhere so we can demorph before we suffocate? 


	31. Chapter 31

Chapter Thirty-One:  
  
  
  
"In local news, the city is still talking about how the King Kong legend came alive last Tuesday. Three days ago, a giant, crazed gorilla named BoBo took a girl hostage and scaled a local water tower. His trainer, an unknown young person, was unable to calm him. When the gorilla had disappeared from sight, the crowd began to grow restless. A riot ensued, resulting in the destruction of the main water tower for the city. Authorities now conjecture that the disturbance was caused when environmentalist forces clashed with those who were advocating a violent end to the conflict.  
  
"The identity of the kidnapped girl is still a mystery, as her face was concealed from the cameras by the ape. It is believed that both girl and gorilla were killed in the destruction of the tower, although no remains have been found at this point. The area is still cordoned off. Water is being carefully rationed, as the mayor has declared a citywide emergency until the free-flowing water is contained, and can be re-deposited into the water and sewage system.  
  
"Further details on the King Kong Disaster at News at Noon. Thank you for joining us, I'm Michael Harrigan. Until next time."  
  
"What," I chuckled. "He'll be somebody else next time?"  
  
The six of us were in the Chee park - a sort of huge field underneath the city, full of dogs and flowers and sunshine. Cassie once described it as the Anti-Pool.  
  
I like that description.  
  
It had been our home for the past three days, as we made sure that we were all really Yeerk-free. Rachel's capture had scared us, and we were all eager to prove to each other that we were not infested.  
  
Rachel's Yeerk had not died well.  
  
We had spent the first day recovering from the "King Kong Disaster." We had spent the first half of the second day figuring out exactly what had happened.  
  
"I was infested as soon as they got me in the truck," Cassie explained. We knew that she, at least, definitely was not a Controller any more. "The Yeerk made me morph cockroach when he figured out what you were doing. After he 'proved' that I wasn't a Controller, we were about to fly home. He . . . we morphed osprey, and he grabbed one of the surviving Yeerks in my bill. Carried it home. There, he hit Rachel as she was coming through a door, and infested her with his friend.  
  
"The two Yeerks," she continued, "decided it would be better to present all of us as prisoners before Visser Three. More glory and honor. But Rachel's Yeerk changed her mind, and double-crossed mine. She promised she would take it feeding during her watch, and never did. She wanted the glory for herself."  
  
I nodded, already knowing this. "But why did Rachel's Yeerk take her up to the tower?" I demanded.  
  
"Ironically enough, she wanted to disarm the dracon cannons," Rachel said wryly. "She couldn't, since the access codes had been changed. But that was her goal."  
  
Why?   
  
"So that her prize "Andalite bandits" wouldn't get hurt when they stormed the tower."  
  
"But," I objected, "there were a million things that could go wrong with their plan. Why not just take the safer and more certain route of reporting us early, even if it did mean a little less impressive of a display? Some accomplishment is better than none, right?"  
  
"Well, Marco," Cassie said thoughtfully, "these weren't exactly the geniuses of the Empire. They were really just regular foot soldiers. They weren't supposed to get important hosts, just teenagers. They weren't supposed to have to think for themselves."  
  
"They were grunts," Rachel interjected. "We almost got destroyed by the potato-peelers of the Yeerk army."  
  
Since the water tower had been downed, and there was a citywide emergency, almost all business had been interrupted. One of those halted industries, Erek reported, was that of Driver's Ed. Somebody, he said, had gone into each Yeerk-affiliated office and deliberately rearranged, mixed, or erased half their files, then swapped out the other half with driving schools. The whole system was in total chaos.  
  
Somebody. Well, I was just glad that burning paperwork didn't come under the Chee heading of violence.  
  
The Chee had taken our places at home for the past three days. I was expecting some interesting conversations with my dad when I got home.  
  
As it was, the time passed very pleasantly, if a little slowly. One of the Chee, who had helped build the first Model T, gave us the remainder of our driving lessons. With their holographic technology, they provided very, very scarily realistic driving practice for us.  
  
Ignore Rachel's little jokes. I was bored with driving. That's why I got in those three accidents.  
  
I lay on my back in my little circular cage. We had asked the Chee to create strong force fields around each of us, isolating us in case we were infested. I chewed a piece of grass thoughtfully.  
  
"Jake," I said.  
  
"Mmm?" He was half-asleep in his circle, a relaxed smile planted on his face.  
  
"How do we know they won't just erect another one?"  
  
He opened an eye. "Another water tower?"  
  
"Another projector."  
  
"I asked Erek the same thing. According to him, the technology was a prototype. Can't be duplicated without significant resources being dedicated to it."  
  
"In other words, it'll cost a lot and take a long time before the Yeerks can ever try anything like this again."  
  
"Right."  
  
I looked around the circle of circles. Jake was mostly asleep. Ax was grazing - the Chee had rigged his circle to move so he could run over their grass. He commented that it was far better than most Earth grasses. Cassie was running towards us, clutching a Frisbee she had just extracted from some dog's mouth. She had a big grin on her face. So did the dog that was loping after her. Rachel and Tobias were talking quietly. Too quietly for me to hear them. Or tease them.  
  
Too bad.  
  
"Jake," I said.  
  
"Yeah, Marco?"  
  
I thought about the things I could say. I could tell him how I was sorry that I hadn't seen that Rachel was a Controller. I could tell him I hoped that the war would be over before the Yeerks tried this stunt again. I could tell him to loosen up around Cassie, to just admit his feelings and start dating like a normal human. I could talk to him about how fast to go through a right turn at a red light. I could ask him if he missed being at home.  
  
"Think we can get a Nintendo down here?" I asked. "I think you deserve another shot at Mario Tennis. You were making some pretty bold claims about your abilities last Saturday."  
  
The dog caught up with Cassie, and wrestled her playfully to the ground. Rachel laughed, apparently at something Tobias had said to her. Ax was standing, simply standing and breathing the clean air.  
  
"We should see if we can get a racing game," Jake said. "It's as close as any of us will get to the driver's seat for a long, long time."  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
The End. 


	32. ZilchNotes

Hi! L. Emmist here! Well, I said that zilch would come after "The End." Therefore, I present to you my Zilch-Notes.  
  
Zilch-Notes is a section dedicated to my fabulous reviewers! Thanks to all of you! I'd like to respond to some of the reviews personally. People who reviewed more frequently got more replies because I had more to say back to them. Those of you who didn't get any replies, I'm still boundlessly grateful for your reviewing. Y'all are the best.  
  
At the bottom is a slightly more complete list of all the things I *don't* own, that were referenced in The Wheel. And below that is a list of the things I do.  
  
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(Note: The number represents the chapter of the review, the name is the person who reviewed. The response is . . . the response.)  
  
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(Second Note: My deepest apologies if I mistake your gender. Y'all are so wonderfully non-self-centered - mostly - that I often don't know whether you're a lady or a gentleman.)  
  
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1) SparkLinh: You're the first reviewer! Congratulations! You earn a special place in my heart. Thanks so much for your review.  
  
1) Lisa-Ann: Yep. Guess you understand how foreshadowing works.  
  
1) oobergoober: You caught me! I *am* KAA! . . . heh, unfortunately not. Go fish!  
  
3) Jinako-chan: Well, congratulations to you, too! You've earned yourself a character in "The Wheel." Sorry, he's a guy. But, still. I wanted to get the idea of an M/C or M/R out of the way early, but didn't feel like just coming out and saying it. So I invented J.I. Nakochan to prompt Marco to say it for me. Enjoy your namesake!  
  
3) Green Eyed Girl: I need to go find whatever it is that was that funny, in there . . .  
  
4) Taylor: Mm-hmm. Wordy is a very good description of "Yeerk."  
  
4) Ziltron: That's an impressively bizarre review. You caused me some concern for you, there.  
  
4) Kat: You know, I was afraid people hadn't gotten that joke. Glad you did!  
  
6) Jinako-chan: No, it wasn't Rachel in morph. For that, you're gonna have to wait until I start publishing "The Nothlit Chronicles." In progress.  
  
6) goddessofvenus19: Yeah, I was a little concerned about that, too. Ah, well.  
  
6) ________: Ax is a magical goat? Gee, and all this time I had thought he was an Andalite. You don't happen to know Ziltron, do you? Because that was every bit as bizarre as his/her review.  
  
7) Poswotle: Good note about Ax! I worked on that through the rest of the story. And I'll do what I can to remedy the situation when I write "The Heretic." Also in progress.  
  
7) goddessofvenus19: You know how all through the story there were spaces after and before the thoughtspeak brackets, Like this? That was because FFN eats your thoughtspeech if you write it standard form. Thus, I missed everything in your review beyond, "sighed Jake," and "Good Ax! He learns! Etc."  
  
8) Lisa-Ann: What are you doing reading Animorphs fanfiction? Go translate your French!  
  
10) Kat: You know about this review. Way to go!  
  
12) flying: I'm sorry, I really tried to put in a little R/T! But seeing as how it's all from Marco's point of view, and Rachel doesn't let her soft side show around Marco, it was quite difficult. I worked it in where I could. There's some at the end, just for you!  
  
13) Taylor: I'm still sad MWG ended!  
  
13) Jinako-chan: Would you believe I've never seen an episode of Buffy? I was writing that, crossing my fingers that I wasn't saying something contrary to Buffy-lore!  
  
14) Lisa-Ann: Obviously, I worked your complaint (and my response) into the next chapter. So I don't really need to say anything about that.  
  
14) flying: Me too!  
  
15) Alikat: All will be revealed in time, young Jedi.  
  
15) Jinako-chan: Ah, that's because it wasn't *Cassie* reading the books! Actually, I just made them mysteries because I needed something suspenseful, but didn't think she'd read Tom Clancy. So I left it at a happy medium.  
  
16) Alikat: Yes. I do. It's my favorite thing to do. If you read my stories, you'd better get used to it!  
  
17) Nacho: Perceptive.  
  
18) Jinako-chan: Yes, I love making you paranoid. Just like I love messing with Alikat's mind. In reference to Chapman - nope, he didn't. It would have been interesting, but it also would have distracted from the story. Didn't want to get off on that tangent.  
  
18) Alikat: Gee, thanks.  
  
19) Noyze: Scary, ain't it? Same here!  
  
20) Alikat: You know, I probably shouldn't derive this much enjoyment from the sound of a brain short-circuiting. Yet, I do.  
  
20) Taylor: Actually, you're spot on. I guess that five percent of your brain is tootling along quite nicely.  
  
20) Lisa-Ann: Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah . . .  
  
21) Qoheleth: Sorry.  
  
22) flying: Yes, it would have. Too bad he didn't really exist . . .  
  
23) Rachel: No, but you do have an identity problem and a stuck Caps Lock button. If you're really the real Rachel, I'd like your signature.  
  
24) Qoheleth: Of course not, silly! I'm Robert Heinlein!  
  
25) oobergoober: Which random names?  
  
26) Toria Wildman: Yep.  
  
26) goddessofvenus: Canst be?  
  
26) G: I'd love input on how to improve the Mary Sue scene. Any thoughts?  
  
26) Mikhail: Okay, you caught me. Keep buying Animorphs books, the royalties are great! Love getting those checks! . . . no, just kidding. But if I *were* KAA, you can bet your ears that I would post here on FFN.  
  
26) Lisa-Ann: You're welcome.  
  
27) oobergoober: Actually, the cliffhanger thing is intentional. It brings people back to the story. And it makes for very fun reviews! Like this one.  
  
27) Kiota: I do, believe me. Thanks for reading.  
  
28) oobergoober: Because grizzlies, unlike gorillas, can swim really well. The Yeerk, as a grizzly, would take out Marco first. So he'd have to demorph before it did. Also, if he dove down, the Yeerk would just follow him. Neither of those are really workable plans, I'm afraid.  
  
28) flying: Like this: "The End."  
  
29) Alikat: Hm. Yeah, I think so.  
  
29) Jinako-chan: Well, I was going to end it there, but since I don't want you to cry . . .  
  
30) Jinako-chan: Nope, the National Guard didn't see. Interesting idea, but the climax has come and gone.  
  
31) DJ Eagel: Congrats to you, too! The "First Person To Review the Last Chapter" award goes to you! . . . and thanks.  
  
31) oobergoober: Thanks, that means a lot to me.  
  
31) goddessofvenus19: Glad you enjoyed it!  
  
31) Lisa-Ann: The reason nobody died was because I was setting out here to write a middle-of-the-series Animorphs book. I patterned style, chapter length, and format after KAA's books. "The Wheel" is just one of the series. To kill off anybody would have been to mess up what I was working so hard for. If you want to see character death, just wait 'till The Nothlit Chronicles and The Family.  
  
31) Nacho: Thanks. And don't worry . . . I will.  
  
31) Jinako-chan: Thanks for sticking with me through this story, Jinako- chan. Nope, you didn't read too much into it. ::Smiles:: And don't worry . . . coming soon to a FFN near you: The Heretic. An Animorphs fanfiction by L. Emmist.  
  
31) Alikat: Did I hear somebody ask for an encore? Well, I just might have something here for you . . .  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
I do not own, in character, concept, form, or fashion, any of the following:  
  
The Animorphs, "The Crocodile Hunter," "Titanic," Nintendo, Mario Tennis, Abercrombie and Fitch, the continent of Africa, the two yellow lines, the works of Shakespeare, Disney's "Tarzan," Apollo 13, the Police, 9-1-1, "A Knight's Tale," Valhalla, Cinnabon, Heisenberg's Uncertainty Principle, the CIA, "Hail to the Chief," "Buffy the Vampire Slayer," "Dracula," "Xena: Warrior Princess," Snickers, the French Revolution, "Friends," McDonald's, "Love is in the Air," Dasani, King Kong, Ann Darrow, the National Guard, Ford, Honda, Chevy, Toyota, Ferrari, "20,000 Leagues Under the Sea," the Air Force, the Model T, "Star Wars," Tom Clancy, or Robert Heinlein.  
  
What I *do* own is the following:  
  
KrayZ and the Loons, Encore Studieau, Sold2U, The Wheel driving school, Pulse of Passion, the swimming mime bicyclists, Cassie's mystery novel, Crush Marco's Self-Esteem Week, and BoBo. 


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